Ouovv  THE  BOOKS 


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OF 


^HOMINES  AD  DECS  NULLA  IN  RE  T 
JPROPIUS  ACCEDUNT  QJJAM  « 
?SALUTEM  HOMINIBUS  DANDO? 

CICERO. 


1 


Masters  of  Medicine 

Title.  Author. 

JOHN  HUNTER        .         .  .  Stephen  Paget 

WILLIAM  HARVEY         .  .  UArcy  Power 

SIR  JAMES  Y.  SIMPSON  .  .  H.  Lalng  Gordon 

WILLIAM  STOKES  .         .  .  Sir  William  Stokes 

SIR  BENJAMIN  BRODIE  .  Timothy  Holmes 

HERMANN  VON  HELMHOLTZ   .  jfohn  G.  McKendrlck 

ANDREAS  VESALIUS        .  .  C.  Louis  Taylor 

THOMAS  SYDENHAM       .  .  J.  F.  Payne 

CLAUDE  BERNARD  Michael  Foster 


M 


ASTERS 
OF 

EDICINE 


WILLIAM    STOKES 


WILLIAM   STOKES. 


WILLIAM   STOKES 


Hife  anti  ftftorfe 

(1804—1878) 


BY  HIS  SON 

WILLIAM   STOKES^ 

SURGEON-IN-ORDINARY    TO    THE    QUEEN    IN     IRELAND 


'  His  life  was  gentle,  and  the  elements 
So  mixed  in  him  that  Nature  might  stand  up 
And  say  to    all  the  world,  *  This  was  a  man.' ' 


YORK 
LONGMANS,   GREEN   &   CO. 

91    &   93    FIFTH   AVENUE 
1898 


R 


•" 


To 
MARGARET  McNAIR  STOKES 

THE    BELOVED    DAUGHTER    AND    CONSTANT 
COMPANION    OF    HIM    WHOSE    LIFE    MUST    EVER    SERVE 
AS    A    BEACON    TO    THOSE     WHO    STRIVE     TO     ELE- 
VATE   THE     PROFESSION    OF     MEDICINE, 
THIS    WORK    IS     DEDICATED 
BY     HER     BROTHER 
THE    AUTHOR 


PREFACE 


IN  presenting  this  Memoir  the  writer,  being  to  a 
great  extent  at  a  disadvantage,  as  a  son  must 
always  be  who  attempts  a  biography  of  his  father, 
hopes  that  his  effort  will  be  regarded  with  indulgence 
by  the  reader.  His  object  has  been  to  convey  the 
impression  of  the  wide  sympathies,  many-sided  nature, 
and  greatness  of  the  character  pourtrayed,  not  so  much 
by  description,  as  by  a  simple  record  of  the  scientific 
work  achieved  by  him,  along  with  what  may  be 
gathered  from  his  addresses  and  occasional  letters,  of 
his  exalted  standard  of  professional  honour,  and  his 
love  and  appreciation  of  the  beautiful  in  Nature 
and  Art. 

Apart  from    the   interest    that    is   always  attached 
to  the   history  of  the  lives  of  those  who  have  dis- 

9 


PREFACE 

tinguished  themselves  in  literature,  science,  or  art, 
much  may  be  gained  by  such  study  in  affording  indi- 
cations as  to  the  methods  to  follow  and  the  pitfalls 
to  avoid  in  our  efforts  to  effect  advancement  in  any  of 
these  branches  of  knowledge.  In  the  present  day, 
when  so  much  difference  of  opinion  exists  as  to  the 
most  desirable  system  of  medical  education,  it  seems 
specially  important  to  note  how  those  who  have  most 
deeply  impressed  their  names  on  the  annals  of  medicine 
worked  as  students,  and  how  the  methods  of  study 
pursued  by  them,  which  would  now  be  considered  so 
defective,  were  followed  by  such  brilliant  results. 
Certain  it  is,  that  no  two  systems  of  education  could 
differ  more  than  the  one  which  existed  during  the 
pupilage  of  Hunter,  Brodie,  Cooper,  Graves,  and 
other  Masters  of  Medicine,  and  that  which  exists  at 
the  present  day.  And  what  may  be  said  of  the 
education  of  these  pioneers  of  medical  and  surgical 
science,  applies  also  to  that  in  connection  with  other 
branches  of  human  knowledge,  as  already  acknow- 
ledged in  the  case  of  the  Fine  Arts. 

In  drawing  attention  to  this,  the  writer's  object  is 
not  to  advocate  a  return  to  the  old  educational 
methods,  but  to  point  out  that  they  had  one  great 
merit  in  which  the  existing  system  is  deficient, 

10 


PREFACE 

namely,  the  large  opportunities  they  afforded  for  culti- 
vating the  faculty  of  original  observation  ;  students 
formerly  had  more  time  and  far  greater  facilities 
for  pursuing  the  special  branches  of  science  ancillary 
to  medicine  for  which  individually  they  had  particular 
aptitude  and  taste.  Now  a  Procrustean  educational 
path,  bristling  with  topics,  most  of  which  should  be 
relegated  to  post-graduate  study,  is  laid  down,  which 
all  students,  irrespective  of  their  tastes  and  abilities, 
must  follow,  and  the  results  in  most  instances  are 
superficiality  and  inaccuracy,  the  reverse  of  what 
was  anticipated  by  our  modern  educational  reformers. 
I  would  commend  to  them  the  words  of  the  wise 
and  true  statement  of  Professor  Baynes,  "  It  is  not  at 
school,  but  by  his  own  self-imposed  studies  afterwards, 
that  a  man  is  educated." 

I  have  endeavoured  in  the  following  pages  to  give 
not  only  what  is  necessarily  a  brief  account  of  my 
father's  scientific  work,  and  the  additions  made  by 
him  to  our  knowledge,  but  also  by  dwelling  on  his 
home  pursuits,  his  tastes,  and  accomplishments  to 
furnish  to  some  extent  a  picture  of  his  inneres  Leben ; 
and,  by  a  few  selected  anecdotes  illustrative  of  Irish 
pathos  and  humour,  to  give  an  idea  of  some  charac- 
teristics of  the  people  among  whom  he  lived  and 

II 


PREFACE 

worked,  and  of  the  country  that  gave  him  birth,  and 
that  he  loved  so  well. 

For  many  valuable  suggestions  my  warm  acknow- 
ledgments are  due  to  my  sister  Miss  Margaret  Stokes, 
to  Sir  Henry  Acland,  Bart.,  Sir  William  Gairdner, 
K.C.B.,  Dr.  Arthur  Wynne  Foot,  Dr.  J.  W.  Moore, 
and  finally  Dr.  Samuel  Gordon,  one  of  my  father's 
most  trusted  friends  and  advisers. 

To  Miss  Blanche  Bellasis  my  warm  acknowledg- 
ments are  also  due  for  the  great  trouble  she  has  taken 
in  the  preparation  of  the  index. 


12 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER    I. 


PAGE 


Lineage,  Birth,  and  Early  Student  Life         .  -IS 

CHAPTER  II. 

Professional    Life    in    Dublin  —  Robert    Graves 

Clinical    Teaching—The     Meath    Hospital- 
Epidemic  of  Typhus  Fever — Marriage  .       37 

CHAPTER    III. 

Asiatic  Cholera — Contributions  to  London  Medical 
and  Surgical  Journal—  Swiss  Tour — Death  of 
Dr.  Macnamara — Contributions  to  "  Cyclo- 
paedia of  Practical  Medicine  "  .  .  -'  .  ^n 

CHAPTER    IV. 
Work  on  Diseases  of  the  Chest        .  ".  .'64 

CHAPTER    V. 

Friendships — Love    for    Music    and    the    Drama 

Shakespeare   Readings — Aims   and  Objects    of 

Art — Professor    Mahaffy — Thomas     Carlyle 

Foreign  Tours  .  .  .  -73 

CHAPTER    VI. 

Political  Views — Catholic  Emancipation— O'Connell 
— "  Young  Ireland  "  Party— The  Great  Famine 
— Typhus  Fever  Epidemic — Medical  Charities 

•  •  •  •  -99 

CHAPTER  VII. 
Pathological  Society— Work  on  Diseases  of  the  Heart 

and  Aorta  .  .  .  .122 


CONTENTS 
CHAPTER  VIII. 

PAGE 

Visit  to  Edinburgh — Sir  James  Simpson — Nice — 
Physician  to  the  Queen — Fellowship  of  the 
Royal  Society — Tour  in  Germany  .  .  145 

CHAPTER   IX. 

Medical    Education  —  Medical    Ethics  —  Preventive 

Medicine — Work  on  Fever — D.C.L.  Oxon         .   158 

CHAPTER  X. 

Visit  of  British    Medical    Association    to    Dublin — 

Archaeological  Tour       .  .  .  .185 

CHAPTER    XI. 

Meeting  at  Oxford — Presidency  of  the  Royal  Irish 

Academy — Degree  of  LL.D.  Cambridge  .   196 

CHAPTER   XII. 

Failing    Health  —  Statue    by    Foley — Power    as    a 

Teacher — Prussian  Order  "  Pour  le  Merite  "     .  208 

CHAPTER    XIII. 

Final  Literary  Work — Life  of  Petrie — Last  Days        .   221 
APPENDICES   ......  243 

INDEX  ......  249 


ILLUSTRATIONS 
STATUE  OF  DR.  STOKES,  BY  FOLEY,  1877         .     Frontispiece 

DRAWING  OF  DR.  STOKES,  BY  SIR  FREDERICK  BURTON, 

1849     ....        To  face  page  122 

ST.  FINTAN'S  CHURCH.      FROM  A  DRAWING  BY  Miss 

MARGARET  STOKES,  1860  .        To  face  page  221 


WILLIAM    STOKES 

i 

LINEAGE,  BIRTH,  AND  EARLY  STUDENT  LIFE 

WILLIAM  STOKES,  the  subject  of  this 
Memoir,  belonged  to  a  family,  members 
of  which  have  for  five  generations  occupied  more  or 
less  prominent  positions  in  the  public  life  of  Ireland. 
Gabriel  Stokes,  the  first  of  his  forefathers  who  settled 
in  Ireland,  was  an  engineer  by  profession,  and  became 
Deputy  Surveyor-General.  He  came  to  Dublin  about 
the  year  1680,  and  appears  to  have  resided  there  the 
greater  part  of  his  life.  The  similarity  of  his  arms, 
family  tradition  and  a  seal,  impressions  of  which  exist, 
and  which  he  bequeathed  to  his  son  John,  on  which  is 
engraved  his  crest  and  arms,  indicate  that  he  probably 
belonged  to  a  junior  branch  of  the  Stokes  family  long 
resident  in  Gloucestershire.  Of  this  family,  Sir  Bernard 
15 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

Burke  has  recorded  that  it  was  of  Norman  origin, 
and  "it  appears  that  its  ancestors  must  have  come 
to  England  after  the  Conquest,  when  houses  and 
possessions  were  assigned  to  them.  Their  history, 
however,  is  not  uninterruptedly  traced  until  the  time 
of  Edward  II.,  1312,  when  we  find  by  records  in  the 
Tower,  that  Sir  Adam  de  Stocke  was  seized  of  the 
Manors  of  Stokke  and  Rutishall  in  the  county  of 
Wilts.  Thomas,  his  eldest  son,  held  the  manor  of 
Seende,  with  other  lands  in  Wiltshire,  and  Roger,  his 
second  son,  the  manors  of  Wolfshall  Savernagge  and 
Hungerford,  in  the  same  county.  The  latter  (Roger) 
with  his  father,  Sir  Adam,  were  interred  in  the  church 
of  Great  Bedwyn,  to  which  they  had  been  benefactors, 
where  their  monuments  and  effigies  are  still  to  be  seen. 
John,  a  descendant  of  Thomas,  represented  the  county 
in  parliament  in  the  time  of  Charles  II.  In  the  reign 
of  Elizabeth  we  find  John  Stokys  (the  first  change  which 
took  place  in  the  orthography  of  the  name)  erected 
the  chapel  or  church  of  Seende,  and  is  interred  there.  In 
the  fifteenth  century  Christopher  Stokes  (when  the 
name  finally  changed),  held  the  manor  of  Stanishawes 
and  Codrington,  with  other  lands  in  the  same  county, 
and  about  1700,  Richard  Stokes,  of  Calne  Castle,  in 
Wiltshire,  held  considerable  possessions  in  the  counties 
16 


LINEAGE,   BIRTH,  AND    STUDENT    LIFE 

of  Gloucester  and  Berks  "  ("  Landed  Gentry  of 
Great  Britain,"  1847,  P-  I3°8)- 

In  the  "Historical  Memorials  of  Canterbury,"  by  the 
late  Dean  Stanley,  we  learn  that  Aleyn  de  Stocke  was 
one  of  the  executors  of  the  will  of  Edward  the  Black 
Prince,  and  it  appears  in  the  Register  of  William 
(Courtenay)  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  1386,  that 
Aleyn  de  Stocke  and  John  Bishop  of  Durham  "  had 
rendered  their  account  of  the  goods  and  had  a  full 
acquittance,"  and  also  another  acquittance  from  the 
Prior  and  Chapter  of  Christ  Church,  Canterbury,  for 
the  legacies  bequeathed  to  that  church  by  the 
Prince. 

When  Gabriel  Stokes  was  resident  in  Dublin 
(1680-1721)  he  there  published  various  works  on 
Engineering,  including  "  A  scheme  for  effectually 
supplying  every  part  of  the  City  of  Dublin  with 
pipe  water  without  any  charge  for  water  engines 
or  any  water  forcers,  by  a  close  adherence  to 
the  laws  of  gravitation  and  the  principles,  rules, 
and  experiments  of  Hydrostaticks."  He  was  also 
the  author  of  "  The  Mathematicians  Cabinet  of  the 
Hydrostatist  Balance  unlocked  ;  or  an  Easy  Key 
to  all  its  Uses."  In  the  Record  Office,  in  Dublin, 
there  are  a  considerable  number  of  maps  of  various 

17 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

districts  in  Ireland  countersigned  by  him,  and  being  an 
engineer  of  much  reputation,  he  was  employed  by  the 
Government  in  various  public  works  for  the  improve- 
ment of  the  Port  of  Dublin,  among  others  the  Great 
Pigeon  House  Wall,  which  protects  the  south  side  of 
the  entrance  into  the  Liffey.  He  obtained  official 
recognition  of  these  services  in  1721,  when  he  was 
accorded  a  forestaff  as  a  crest  by  William  Hawkins, 
Ulster,  "for  his  skill  in  his  profession."  This  was 
during  the  Viceroyalty  of  His  Grace  the  Duke  of 
Grafton. 

Gabriel  Stokes  had  two  sons,  John,  born  1716,  and 
Gabriel,  born  1726,  both  of  whom  were  Scholars  and 
Fellows  of  Trinity  College.  The  former  was  Regius 
Professor  of  Greek  and  Archbishop  King's  Lecturer. 
He  ultimately  obtained  a  College  living  in  the  County 
Donegal,  where  he  settled.  He  was  a  classical  scholar 
of  much  repute,  and  published  an  edition  of  Demos- 
thenes. His  son  was  the  father  of  Sir  George 
Gabriel  Stokes,  Bart.,  F.R.S.,  late  President  of 
the  Royal  Society,  and  of  the  late  Rev.  J.  W. 
Stokes,  Archdeacon  of  Armagh.  The  second  son 
Gabriel,  became  Professor  of  Mathematics,  and  like 
his  brother,  eventually  took  a  College  living,  and 
settled  in  Waterford  where  he  was  Chancellor  of 

18 


LINEAGE,   BIRTH,  AND    STUDENT   LIFE 

Waterford  Cathedral.1  He  edited  Hippolytus  and 
Iphigenia  in  Aulis,  and  was  author  of  an  Essay  on 
Newcome's  "  Harmony  of  the  Gospels,"  and  one  on 
Subscription  to  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles.  His  eldest 
son  Whitley,  born  1763,  was  the  father  of  the  subject 
of  the  present  memoir. 

Whitley  Stokes,  like  his  father  and  uncle,  was 
a  Scholar  and  Senior  Fellow  of  Trinity  College, 
and  held  a  position  of  great  prominence  in  the 
scientific,  literary,  and  political  circles  in  the  Irish 
capital  towards  the  end  of  the  last  and  beginning 
of  the  present  century.  He  was  a  man  of  pure 
and  lofty  aims,  singular  unselfishness,  untiring 
energy,  and  capable  of  such  self-devotion  as  too 
often  frustrates  its  own  object.  In  the  pursuit 
of  means  by  which  he  might  promote  the  moral 
interests  and  physical  resources  of  his  country  all 
else  was  forgotten.  In  early  life  it  was  his  intention 
to  take  Holy  Orders,  but,  on  obtaining  a  fellowship 
in  Trinity  College,  he  relinquished  that  idea,  and 

1  In  connection  with  the  much  disputed  point  as  to  whether  the 
marriage  of  Dean  Swift  with  Hester  Johnson  (Stella)  ever  took  place, 
the  writer  may  mention  that  his  aunt,  Miss  Ellen  Stokes,  now  many 
years  deceased,  stated  that  her  grandfather  informed  her  that  the  Bishop 
of  Clogher,  who  was  an  intimate  friend  of  Swift,  and  also  of  Gabriel 
Stokes,  told  the  latter  that  the  ceremony  had  taken  place  in  the  Dean's 
garden — now  the  site  of  the  Meath  Hospital — and  that  he  himself  had 
officiated. 

'9 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

devoted  himself  to  the  study  of  medicine.  About 
the  year  1800  he  became  Professor  of  the  Practice 
of  Medicine  in  the  Royal  College  of  Surgeons, 
which  Chair  he  held  for  several  years.  In  the  year 
1816,  having  become  a  Non-Conformist,  he  felt 
compelled  to  resign  his  Senior  Fellowship.  His 
services,  however,  were  not  lost  to  the  University, 
as  he  was  appointed  to  the  Lectureship  on  Natural 
History,  and  ultimately  was  elected  Regius  Professor 
of  Medicine.  In  early  life  he  became  a  member 
of  the  Society  of  United  Irishmen,  in  the  first 
months  of  its  existence,  but  as  soon  as  he  found 
that  the  object  of  its  associates  was  not  to  be  con- 
fined to  effecting  reforms  by  peaceful  and  constitu- 
tional means,  he  retired  from  taking  any  action 
in  their  proceedings.  This  was  in  1792.  How- 
ever, it  being  suspected  that  his  sympathies  were 
still  largely  with  the  movement,  and  the  principles 
advocated  by  Grattan,  Curran,  and  other  Irish  patriots 
and  friends,  he  was  cited  to  appear  before  the  Vice- 
Chancellor  of  the  University,  Lord  Clare,  with  the 
result  that,  notwithstanding  his  previous  secession  from 
the  society,  and  before  it  had  become  a  secret  organi- 
sation, he  was  suspended  from  his  Fellowship  for  a 
year.  In  abandoning  the  society,  he  did  not  lose  the 

2O 


LINEAGE,   BIRTH,   AND   STUDENT   LIFE 

esteem  of  one,  at  all  events,  of  its  most  prominent 
members,  viz.,  Theobald  Wolfe  Tone,  who  wrote  of 
him,  "  We,  however,  differed  on  many  material  points 
and  we  differ  on  principles  which  do  honour  to  Stokes' 
heart.  With  an  acute  feeling  of  the  degradation  of 
his  country  and  a  just  and  generous  indignation  against 
her  oppressors,  the  tenderness  and  humanity  of  his 
disposition  is  such  that  he  recoils  from  any  measure  to 
be  attempted  for  her  emancipation  which  may  ter- 
minate in  blood.  In  this  respect  I  have  not  the 
virtue  to  imitate  him.  I  must  observe  that  with  this 
perhaps  extravagant  anxiety  for  the  lives  of  others,  I  am 
sure  that  in  any  case  that  satisfied  his  conscience,  no 
man  would  be  more  prodigal  of  his  own  life  than 
Whitley  Stokes,  for  he  is  an  enthusiast  in  his  nature, 
but  what  he  would  highly,  that  would  he  holily,  and 
I  am  afraid  in  the  present  state  of  affairs  that  is  a  thing 
impossible.  I  love  Stokes  most  sincerely.  With  a 
most  excellent  and  highly  cultivated  mind  he 
possesses  the  distinguishing  characteristic  of  the 
best  and  most  feeling  heart,  and  I  am  sure  that  it 
will  not  hurt  the  self-love  of  any  of  the  friends  whose 
names  I  have  recorded  when  I  say  in  the  full  force  of 
the  phrase,  that  I  look  upon  Whitley  Stokes  as  the 
very  best  man  I  have  ever  known." 

21 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

An  interesting  account  of  this  "  Visitation "  of 
1798  is  given  in  Dr.  Stubbs'  "  History  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Dublin,  from  1591  to  1800."  "Whitley 
Stokes,  when  questioned  by  the  Vice-Chancellor, 
denied  that  he  knew  of  the  existence  of  societies  of 
United  Irishmen  in  the  College,  or  of  any  illegal  or 
secret  societies  within  the  walls.  He  admitted  that 
he  had  been  a  member  of  the  Society  of  United 
Irishmen  in  1791,  before  their  revolutionary  ten- 
dencies had  been  developed  ;  but  he  stated  that  from 
that  period  he  had  altogether  dissociated  himself  from 
them.  He  admitted  that  he  had  occasionally  visited 
as  a  physician  a  man  who  was  well  known  for  his 
treasonable  proclivities,  but  who  was  very  ill  and 
very  poor.  He  was  always  accompanied  by  a  third 
person,  lest  his  action  might  be  misrepresented. 
He  had  also  subscribed  to  a  fund  which  was 
formed  to  relieve  the  necessities  of  two  members  of 
the  United  Irishmen  who  were  in  prison.  The 
most  reliable  evidence  was  given  on  Dr.  Stokes' 
behalf,  that  he  had  used  his  influence,  which  was 
considerable,  with  the  students  to  induce  some  of 
them  to  withdraw  from  treasonable  associations, 
and  to  enrol  their  names  among  the  members 
of  the  College  Corps,  and  that  his  efforts  had 

22 


LINEAGE,  BIRTH,  AND   STUDENT   LIFE 

been  successful." r  Notwithstanding  this  testimony, 
the  visitors  decided  that  in  consequence  of  his  having 
confessed  that  he  had  had  intercourse  with  leaders  of 
the  conspiracy,  he  should  be  precluded  from  acting  as 
college  tutor,  should  for  three  years  be  disqualified 
from  sitting  as  a  member  of  the  Board,  and  from  being 
co-opted  to  a  Senior  Fellowship.  The  sentence  was 
confirmed  by  the  Duke  of  Gloucester,  as  Chancellor 
of  the  University,  in  May,  1798.  The  decision  was 
considered  a  very  harsh  one,  and  "  those  who  knew 
the  integrity  of  Dr.  Stokes'  character,  and  the  kindli- 
ness of  heart  and  humanity  by  which  he  was  marked, 
could  not  believe  that  the  sentence  which  Lord  Clare 
and  Dr.  Duigenan  had  passed  upon  him  was  justified. 
We  must  remember  that  both  the  visitors  were  men 
of  strong  party  feeling,  and  that  Stokes  as  well  as 
Brown,  entertained  extreme  liberal  views  in  politics, 
while  they  were  both  thoroughly  opposed  to  seditious 
and  disloyal  proceedings." 

To  various  branches  of  natural  history,  especially 
botany,  zoology,  mineralogy,  and  chemistry,  and 
to  the  development  of  the  industrial  resources  of 

1  "The  History  of  the  University  of  Dublin,  from  its  foundation  to 
the  end  of  the  Eighteenth  Century,"  by  John  William  Stubbs,  D.D., 
S.F.T.C.D.  1889.  p.  298. 

23 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

Ireland,  he  now  devoted  himself  with  character- 
istic enthusiasm.  He  took  an  active  part  in  the 
arrangement  and  foundation  of  the  College 
Botanical  Gardens,  and  was  one  of  the  founders 
of  the  Zoological  Gardens  in  the  Phoenix  Park. 
As  a  proof  of  his  many-sided  nature  and  wide 
sympathies  it  may  be  mentioned  that  he  published 
at  his  own  expense  a  translation  of  the  New 
Testament  into  Irish,  and  in  conjunction  with 
the  Rev.  B.  Mathias,  and  the  Rev.  W.  Stephens, 
originated  the  Irish  Society.  Although  he  devoted 
so  much  time  to  the  pursuit  of  natural  science, 
politics,  and  literature,  he  was  not,  as  Sir  Charles 
Cameron  has  pointed  out  in  his  excellent  memoir,1 
unmindful  of  his  functions  as  a  physician  and  "was 
ever  ready  to  minister  to  the  wants  of  the  sick 
poor."  He  worked  hard  during  the  epidemic  of 
typhus  fever,  and  in  a  treatise  on  contagion,  he 
strongly  advocated  the  isolation  of  the  sick,  the 
purification  of  their  dwellings  and  clothing,  and 
the  establishment  of  district  hospitals.2 

1 "  History  of  the  Royal  College  of  Surgeons,"  by  Sir  Charles  A. 
Cameron,  1886. 

2  The  following  is  a  list  of  some  of  his  published  writings  : — "  Essay 
on  Respiration,"  1793.  "Observations  on  Contagion,"  two  Editions. 
"  Observations  on  the  Necessity  of  publishing  the  Scriptures  in  the  Irish 

24 


LINEAGE,   BIRTH,  AND   STUDENT   LIFE 

In  his  home  life,  his  tastes,  being  distinctly 
artistic,  he  encouraged  these  in  his  children,  some 
of  whom,  especially  in  painting,  gave  promise  of 
great  future  distinction.  To  music,  poetry,  and 
painting,  he  was  perhaps  as  devoted  as  he  was  to 
any  of  the  many  branches  of  natural  science,  in 
the  pursuit  of  which  he  made  for  himself  so  last- 
ing a  reputation.  He  died  at  the  advanced  age  of 
eighty-two  on  April  13,  1845.! 

Whitley  Stokes  numbered  among  his  friends 
some  of  the  most  brilliant  men  of  the  day,  when 
social  life  in  Dublin  was  remarkable  for  the  genius, 
wit,  and  grace  that  shone  at  its  friendly  gather- 
ings. It  is  related  that  on  one  evening  at  a  dinner 
party  at  his  house  in  Harcourt  Street  were  met 
together  Charles  Kendal  Bushe,  the  most  graceful 
and  attractive  of  speakers ;  William  C.  Plunket, 
subsequently  Lord  Chancellor  of  Ireland,  the  last  of 
the  remarkable  group  of  orators  in  the  closing  half  of 
the  eighteenth  century  ;  John  Philpot  Curran,  whose 

Language."  A  prize  Essay  in  reply  to  Paine's  "  Age  of  Reason."  Letters 
in  reply  to  Part  II.  of  Paine's  "  Age  of  Reason."  "  Observations  on  the 
Population  and  Resources  of  Ireland  in  reply  to  Malthus,"  &c. 

1  Mr.  Lecky  refers  more  than  once  to  the  writings  of  Whitley  Stokes, 
"  whose  tracts,"  he  says,  "  throw  much  light  upon  the  agrarian  history 
of  his  time  in  Ireland"  ("  Ireland  in  the  Eighteenth  Century,1'  vol. 
iii.  pp.  409,  412-14). 

25 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

bright  genius  has  been  compared  to  a  prism  "catching 
the  radiance  that  shone  around  him,  breaking  into  a 
thousand  hues  of  rainbow  colour "  ;  William  Magee, 
distinguished  as  an  author  and  divine,  then  Professor 
of  Mathematics  in  Trinity  College,  afterwards  Arch- 
bishop of  Dublin  ;  and  Peter  Burrowes,  the  eloquent 
lawyer,  whose  speeches  in  the  Irish  Parliament  were 
models  of  clear  and  forcible  reasoning.  These  and 
other  distinguished  men  were  gathered  round  the  table, 
when  a  question  was  started  as  to  what  constituted  the 
chief  qualification  of  a  delightful  companion  and  friend, 
upon  which  matter  it  was  sportively  agreed  that 
each  person  should  deliver  his  opinion  in  succession. 
One  said  it  consisted  of  wit  ;  another  of  humour  ;  a 
third,  a  combination  of  both  ;  a  fourth,  of  learning 
readily  producible  upon  any  occasion  that  might  be 
started  ;  a  fifth,  a  powerful  memory  stored  with 
anecdote  ;  a  sixth,  of  sound  philosophical  views  ;  when 
Mr.  Burrowes  cried  out,  "Are  you  all  done?" 
and  when  all  eyes  turned  towards  him  he  electri- 
fied them  by  striking  the  table  with  his  fist  and 

saying,  "It  is  Honesty  by  G " 

William  Stokes,  the  subject  of  this  memoir,  was 
the  second  son  of  Whitley  Stokes,  and  was  born 
in  Dublin,  July,  1804.  His  earliest  years  were 

26 


LINEAGE,   BIRTH,   AND   STUDENT   LIFE 

spent  at  his  father's  country-house,  Ballinteer,  in 
the  Dublin  hills.  As  a  boy  he  did  not  give  in- 
dications of  exceptional  ability,  and  was  apparently 
by  nature  indolent  and  apathetic  as  regards  both 
physical  and  intellectual  effort.  He  had  no  aptitude 
for  games,  field  sports,  or  athletics  ;  but  at  an 
early  age  he  exhibited  a  love  for  poetry  and 
romance  which  in  after  life  he  never  lost.  It  is 
narrated  of  him  that  when  still  a  boy  a  favourite 
habit  of  his  was  to  retire  to  what  he  termed  his 
"  nest "  which  he  had  made  in  a  thick  beech 
hedge  and  there  he  studied,  and  committed  to 
memory,  many  of  the  Scottish  Border  Ballads, 
which  a  short  time  previously  had  been  published 
by  Sir  Walter  Scott.  These  tales  of  heroism,  devo- 
tion, love,  and  revenge  had  for  the  boy  an  absorbing 
interest  and  fascination,  not  less  than  that  he  after- 
wards experienced  from  reading  the  Waverley 
novels,  works  which,  throughout  his  whole  life, 
and  almost  to  the  day  of  his  death,  were  sources  of 
the  keenest  pleasure  to  him. 

The  desultory  studies  to  which  Stokes  in  his 
early  youth  was  so  much  devoted,  and  his  in- 
dolence in  carrying  out  any  steady  methodical 
system  of  study,  were  sources  of  real  concern  to 

27 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

his  parents,  and  caused  his  mother,  especially,  much 
anxious  thought.  One  day,  while  in  his  favourite 
retreat,  he  fell  asleep,  but  shortly  afterwards  was 
awakened  by  some  warm  drops  falling  on  his  face. 
He  started  up  and  saw  his  mother  bending  over 
him.  Her  tears  had  awakened  him.  Stung  with 
remorse  at  having  been  a  cause  of  so  much  sorrow, 
his  nature  appeared  to  undergo  an  immediate  and 
salutary  change,  and  the  dreamy  indolent  boy  sud- 
denly became  the  ardent  enthusiastic  student.  The 
influence  of  Whitley  Stokes'  character  and  the 
intellectual  atmosphere  he  created  around  him,  could 
not  fail  to  foster  and  develop  the  mental  power  of 
his  son  who  now  became  assistant  in  his  father's 
laboratory,  and  a  constant  companion  during  his 
frequent  rambles  among  the  hills  and  valleys  of 
Dublin  and  Wicklow,  studying  practical  botany, 
geology,  and  mineralogy.  In  these  walks,  too,  he 
doubtless  became  embued  with  that  passionate  love 
for  the  external  beauties  of  nature  which  throughout 
his  life  was  one  of  his  keenest  pleasures.  He  had 
also  the  advantage  of  meeting  occasionally  his  father's 
distinguished  friends,  among  whom  were  some  of  the 
brightest  intellects  of  the  day,  such  men  as  those 
already  mentioned  as  well  as  Henry  Grattan,  James 

28 


LINEAGE,  BIRTH,  AND   STUDENT   LIFE 

Martineau ;  O'Conor,  the  landscape  painter ;  J. 
Parsons,  the  eminent  lawyer  ;  and  Petrie,  the  archaeo- 
logist, and  accomplished  musician  and  artist.  Such 
advantages  as  these  to  a  large  extent  compensated  for 
the  want  of  the  methodical  school  and  collegiate 
education  the  benefits  of  which  were  denied  to 
William  Stokes,  owing  to  the  peculiar  views  on  the 
subject  of  education  held  by  his  father,  who  over- 
estimated the  advantages,  moral  and  physical,  to  be 
derived  from  home  education. 

The  mixed  condition  of  society  in  Dublin  at  this 
period  is  difficult  now  to  realise — so  strong  was  the 
contrast  between  such  brilliant  intellects  as  those  of 
the  friends  Whitley  Stokes  gathered  round  him,  and 
the  ill-ordered  and  indolent  character  prevalent  in  the 
mass  of  the  Irish  nation  immediately  after  the  Union. 
On  one  side  brilliant  talent,  energy,  humour,  sparkling 
fun,  refinement,  and  poetry;  on  the  other  dejection, 
discontent,  inertness,  or,  more  mournful  still  than  all, 
indifference  to  aught  but  selfish  and  petty  intrigue.  If 
we  would  know  somewhat  of  the  labours  of  those 
who  strove  for  better  things,  we  must  not  ignore 
the  difficulties  that  thus  met  them  on  every  side 
in  that  land  for  which,  to  use  the  words  of  Whitley 
Stokes,  "  God  had  done  so  much  and  man  so  little." 

29  c 


WILLIAM  STOKES 

It  must  not  however  be  supposed  that  in  William 
Stokes'  early  education  classics  and  mathematics  were 
altogether  neglected,  for  he  had  for  many  years  as 
tutor  the  well-known  scholar  and  mathematician,  John 
Walker,  F.T.C.D.,  a  learned  author,  whose  edition  of 
Livy  was  published  in  1777,  and  also  of  Euclid,  a  work 
still  in  use.  From  this  teacher  he  learned  Greek, 
Latin,  and  mathematics.  It  was  to  him  always  a 
source  of  profound  regret  in  after  life  that  he  had  not 
been  allowed  to  enter  college,  since  no  one  ever  more 
fully  realised  the  importance  of  university  training 
and  education.  However,  in  his  instance  the  loss, 
as  already  pointed  out,  was  largely  compensated. 
His  education  commenced  in  boyhood  at  his  father's 
side,  from  whom  he  derived  that  taste  and  aptitude 
for  physical  science  to  which,  while  a  student,  he 
he  devoted  himself  with  unceasing  industry  and 
enthusiasm.  Chemistry  appears  at  this  period  to 
have  had  special  attraction  for  him,  and  this  doubtless 
was  largely  due  to  his  intimacy  with,  and  warm  friend- 
ship for,  James  Apjohn,  who  subsequently  became  cele- 
brated as  a  teacher  and  investigator  in  that  science. 

After  studying  Clinical  Medicine  for  some  time  in 
the  Meath  Hospital,  and  the  sciences,  ancillary  to  medi- 
cine, especially  that  of  chemistry,  in  the  laboratory  of 

3° 


LINEAGE,  BIRTH,  AND    STUDENT    LIFE 

Trinity  College  and  the  Royal  College  of  Surgeons, 
he  went  to  Glasgow,  where  for  fully  two  years  he 
again  worked  mainly  at  chemistry  in  the  laboratory 
and  under  the  direction  of  Professor  Thompson.  He 
then,  acting  on  his  father's  advice,  proceeded  to 
Edinburgh  to  complete  the  studies  required  for  a 
medical  degree  which  he  hoped  to  obtain  there.  Here 
it  was  that,  stimulated  by  the  magnetic  influence  of 
Professor  Alison,  he  developed  that  study  for  Clinical 
Medicine  and  that  rare  power  of  original  observation 
and  research  which  enabled  him  at  an  early  age 
to  take  so  prominent  and  foremost  a  place  among 
the  pioneers  of  medical  science.  The  account  of 
his  first  interview  with  Alison  is  thus  graphically 
given  by  Sir  Henry  Acland  in  his  admirable  bio- 
graphical sketch  of  William  Stokes.1  "  He  was 
walking  one  wet  night  down  the  old  Cowgate ; 
he  observed  a  crowd  at  the  entrance  of  a  dark 
passage ;  he  stopped  to  see  what  it  could  mean ; 
he  entered  a  low  room  filled  with  sick  poor,  Pro- 
fessor Alison  being  seated  among  them  ;  he  watched 
the  scene ;  a  young  man  evidently  suffering  from 
advanced  fever  stepped  forward.  Alison  said,  *  Go 

1  "  William  Stokes."  A  Sketch  drawn  for  the  New  Sydenham  Society, 
by  Henry  W.  Acland,  Regius  Prof,  of  Medicine  in  the  University  of 
Oxford.  London,  1882. 

31 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

to  your  bed  and  when  I  have  done  here  I  will 
come  to  you.'  Young  Stokes  then  stepped  forward 
and  said,  c  Sir,  I  will  take  the  poor  man  to  his  home.' 
c  Who  are  you  ? '  asked  Alison.  '  One  of  your 
pupils  ;  my  name  is  Stokes.'  { I  never  saw  you  before,' 
said  Alison.  £  Perhaps  not,  but  I  have  seen  you, 
for  I  go  to  your  lectures.  Let  me  take  the  poor 
man  home  and  I  will  come  and  tell  you  how  he  goes 
on.'  c  Very  well,'  said  Alison,  '  you  may  go.'  From 
that  time  they  were  companions  and  friends." 

Later  in  life  William  Stokes  observed  of  his  great 
teacher,  "Alison  was  the  best  man  I  ever  knew.  I 
wonder  how  it  has  happened  that  men  should  forget 
what  reverence  is  due  to  his  memory — whether  we 
look  on  him  personally  as  a  man  of  science  and 
a  teacher,  or  at  his  life  as  that  of  an  exemplar 
of  a  soldier  of  Christ.  It  was  my  good  fortune 
to  be  very  closely  connected  with  him  during  my 
student  days  in  Edinburgh,  and  to  attend  him  by 
day  and  more  often  far  into  the  night  in  his  visits  of 
mercy  to  the  sick  poor  of  that  city  to  whom  he  was 
for  many  a  year  physician,  friend,  and  support." 

From  nine  at  night  to  two  or  three  o'clock  in  the 
morning  we  seem  to  see  this  wise  and  good  physician 
attended  by  William  Stokes,  the  ardent  youth  of 

32 


LINEAGE,    BIRTH,   AND    STUDENT    LIFE 

twenty-one  years  of  age,  as  full  of  love  for  his 
great  teacher  as  of  zeal  for  his  art,  passing  through 
snow  and  storm  down  the  Cowgate  and  up  the 
high  stairs  leading  to  the  topmost  flat  on  some 
old  house  in  the  wynds  of  Edinburgh,  bringing 
medicine  and  healing  to  the  dark  haunts  of  poverty 
and  misery,  comfort  and  sympathy  to  the  wounded 
souls  at  whose  bedside  they  ministered. 

About  this  time  the  profession  was  much  exercised 
by  the  great  advance  made  in  the  French  School 
more  particularly  in  the  power  of  diagnosis  of  thoracic 
diseases  through  the  advocacy  of  auscultation  and 
percussion  by  Laennec.  Like  many  other  innovations 
and  discoveries  in  medicine  and  surgery,  it  was  long 
before  the  methods  were  recognised  as  reliable  adju- 
vants in  the  art  of  diagnosis.  But  William  Stokes 
at  once  grasped  the  importance  and  far-reaching 
results  which  he  saw  would  ensue  from  Laennec's 
great  discovery.  Accordingly,  and  before  he  obtained 
any  medical  qualification,  he  prepared  and  published  in 
Edinburgh  in  1825  a  small  treatise  on  the  use  of  the 
stethoscope,  for  which  work  he  received  the  sum  of 
This  work,  followed  in  1828  by  the  publication 


1  Although  Dr.  Cullen,  to  whom  Stokes  dedicated  his  work,  and  Sir 
J.  Forbes  both  published  cases  illustrative  of  the  practical  use  of  the 
stethoscope  in  the  diagnosis  of  thoracic  disease,  to  Stokes  is  unquestion- 

33 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

of  two  lectures  on  the  application  of  the  stethoscope 
to  the  diagnosis  and  treatment  of  thoracic  disease,  may 
be  said  to  be  the  foundation  stones  of  the  great  super- 
structure, namely,  his  treatise  on  diseases  of  the  chest, 
which  appeared  eleven  years  afterwards,  and  which 
was  the  work  on  which  his  reputation  and  fame 
may  be  said  mainly  to  rest. 

In  reference  to  the  two  lectures  above  referred 
to,  the  author  of  a  short  sketch  of  William  Stokes 
which  appeared  in  the  Dublin  University  Magazine, 
August,  1874,  observes:  "The  importance  of  these 
lectures  at  the  time  they  were  delivered  to  the 
class  of  the  Meath  Hospital  cannot  be  overrated. 
The  science  of  the  stethoscope  was  then  only  in 
its  infancy,  and  like  everything  else  that  is  new, 
no  matter  how  valuable  it  may  be,  was  met  with 
opposition  and  adverse  criticism  by  those  who  either 
would  not  or,  from  their  own  deficiencies,  could  not 
appreciate  its  value.  Not  so  with  Dr.  Stokes,  his 
medical  mind  saw  in  the  simple  instrument  that 
was  spurned  and  despised  by  others  a  new  and 
powerful  weapon  to  aid  him  in  the  great  battle 
with  disease  and  death." 

ably  due  the  credit  of  publishing  the  first  systematic  treatise  in  the 
English  language  on  the  subject.  The  date  of  the  publication  is  1825. 

34 


LINEAGE,  BIRTH,    AND    STUDENT    LIFE 

In  the  first  of  these  lectures  he  says,  "  The  sense 
of  hearing  has  been  called  to  our  assistance  and 
has,  I  will  affirm,  added  more  to  the  facility,  certainty, 
and  utility  of  diagnosis  than  anything  that  has  been 
done  for  centuries."  Twelve  years  later  he  wrote, 
"  Time  has  already  shown  that  the  introduction  of 
auscultation  and  its  subsidiary  physical  signs  has  been 
one  of  the  greatest  boons  ever  conferred  by  the  genius 
of  man  on  the  world.  A  new  era  in  medicine 
has  been  marked  by  a  new  science  depending  on 
the  immutable  laws  of  physical  phenomena,  and, 
like  other  discoveries  founded  on  such  a  basis,  simple 
in  its  application  and  easily  understood.  A  gift  from 
science  to  a  favoured  son,  not  as  was  formerly  supposed, 
a  means  of  merely  forming  a  useless  diagnosis  in 
incurable  disease,  but  one  by  which  the  ear  is  con- 
verted into  the  eye,  the  hidden  recesses  of  visceral 
disease  opened  to  the  view,  a  new  guide  in  the 
treatment  and  a  new  help  in  the  early  detection, 
prevention,  and  cure  of  the  most  widely-spread  diseases 
which  affect  mankind."1 

As  an  illustration  of  how  long  it  takes  for  the 
adoption  of  any  novelty  in  practice,  no  matter  how 

1  "  A  Treatise  on  the  Diagnosis  and  Treatment  of  Diseases  of  the 
Chest,"  pp.  40,  41,  Dublin,  1837. 

35 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

high  its  credentials,  a  statement  made  by  Sir  Henry 
Acland,  one  of  William  Stokes'  best  and  most  constant 
friends,  with  reference  to  the  great  use  of  the  stetho- 
scope, may  he  mentioned  :  "  I  cannot  but  remember 
now  that  more  than  ten  years  after  this  passage 
was  written,  I  myself  being  a  clerk  in  a  great  hospital, 
had  to  withstand  the  ridicule  of  an  able  teacher 
for  devoting  myself  to  the  mastery  of  the  in- 
strument." 


36 


II 


PROFESSIONAL  LIFE  IN  DUBLIN — ROBERT  GRAVES — 
CLINICAL  TEACHING — THE  MEATH  HOSPITAL 
— EPIDEMIC  OF  TYPHUS  FEVER — MARRIAGE 

IN  the  autumn  of  1825  Stokes  having  obtained  his 
degree  in  Edinburgh,  returned  to  Dublin  and 
shortly  after  was  elected  to  his  first  professional 
appointment,  Physician  to  the  Dublin  General  Dis- 
pensary. Though  no  direct  emolument  was  attached 
to  the  office  yet  it  was  an  honourable  one,  involving 
great  labour,  and  was  eventually  of  essential  service  to 
him  as  an  introduction  to  practice.  Writing  at  this 
time  to  the  lady  who  subsequently  became  his  wife, 
he  observed  :  "  In  the  course  of  my  practice  here  I 
meet  with  instances  of  want  and  wretchedness  that 
wring  my  very  heart,  and  I  wish  for  the  fortune  of  a 
prince  that  I  might  relieve  them.  Charity  is  of  all 

37 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

virtues  the  fairest  and  most  boundless  and  sometimes 
even  here  meets  its  reward.  One  gentleman  whose 
vote  I  came  to  solicit  said,  c  I  will  vote  for  you,  sir,  for 
the  sake  of  your  father,  who  thirty-two  years  ago 
brought  a  bottle  of  wine  in  his  pocket  to  an  unfortu- 
nate man  who  lived  behind  my  house.'  This  was 
*  bread  thrown  on  the  waters '  which  I  found  *  after 
many  days.' " 

In  1826  after  many  months  of  laborious  dispensary 
work,  one  of  the  offices  of  Physician  to  the  Meath 
Hospital  becoming  vacant  owing  to  Dr.  Whitley 
Stokes'  resignation,  William  Stokes  was  elected  in  his 
place,  the  reputation  he  had  obtained  on  the  publica- 
tion of  his  treatise  on  the  use  of  the  stethoscope, 
having  doubtless  largely  contributed  to  his  success  at 
the  election.  Feeling  the  necessity  for  some  rest  and 
change  before  commencing  his  clinical  work  at  the 
hospital,  he  set  out  with  a  few  friends  for  North 
Wales,  among  the  mountains  and  valleys  of  which  he 
spent  a  short  but  pleasant  holiday.  The  following 
extract  from  one  of  his  letters  at  this  time  gives  a  fair 
idea  of  his  exceptional  power  of  word  painting  : — 

"Aug.  15,  1826. — Our  next  day's  march  was 
through  the  delightful  valley  leading  to  Snowdon, 
which  mountain  we  ascended.  I  do  not  think  the 

38 


EARLY   PROFESSIONAL   LIFE 

view  as  beautiful  from  its  top  as  that  from  Ben 
Lomond,  but  it  is  stupendous.  Enormous  excavations 
crowned  by  rugged  peaks  yawn  in  every  direction 
round  the  spectator,  and  make  one  think  that  here 
was  the  focus  of  some  of  Nature's  wildest  convulsions. 
Our  next  day  was  spent  fishing  in  the  lakes  through 
the  romantic  valley  of  Beddgelert — sometimes  ascend- 
ing the  mountains  to  mineralogise  or  botanise.  I 
think  you  would  have  laughed  to  have  seen  me  with 
a  fishing  basket  on  my  back,  an  angling  rod  in  my 
hand,  and  a  Shakespeare  peeping  out  of  my  breast 
pocket.  On  that  evening  we  saw  a  beautiful  phe- 
nomenon. The  sun  was  setting  behind  one  of  the 
peaks  of  Snowdon  while  a  huge  mass  of  white  cloud 
poured  down  from  the  adjoining  hill  into  its  deep 
excavation,  but  the  curious  circumstance  was  that  as 
soon  as  the  rays  of  the  sun  shot  across  this  body  of 
vapour  it  instantly  ascended,  coming  up  the  precipice 
like  a  pillar  of  flame  and  giving  the  idea  of  a  volcano 
in  its  proudest  action.  I  remained  more  than 
half  an  hour  gazing  on  the  scene  in  silent  ad- 
miration." 

On  his  return  he  commenced  his  clinical  work  at 
the  Meath  Hospital,  where  he  had  the  great  advantage 
of  having  as  a  loyal  colleague  the  illustrious  Robert 

39 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

James  Graves,  who  became  his  life-long  friend.  From 
his  rare  erudition,  the  variety  of  his  mental  powers, 
his  industry,  and  the  additions  which  he  made  to 
practical  medicine,  he  was,  in  William  Stokes'  opinion, 
the  most  remarkable  man  of  which  the  profession  in 
this  country  can  boast.  To  be  associated  with  one 
so  richly  endowed  with  intellectual  power,  combined 
with  an  almost  boyish  simplicity  of  character,  who 
was  mentally  humble  but  naturally  proud,  was  Stokes' 
rare  good  fortune. 

For  years  they  worked  together  in  the  Meath 
Hospital,  assisting  one  another  in  their  clinical  re- 
searches, and  in  the  initiation  and  carrying  out  of  a 
system  of  clinical  instruction  till  then  unknown  in 
this  country,  which  eventually  acquired  a  world-wide 
fame  for  the  Dublin  School  of  Medicine.  Never  did 
any  disagreement  arise  between  them.  In  such  natures 
envy  and  jealousy  had  no  place,  and  the  lapse  of  time 
only  strengthened  and  cemented  the  bonds  between 
them  of  friendship,  loyalty,  and  affection. 

The  success  of  Stokes'  early  researches,  as  well  as 
the  brilliant  reputation  acquired  by  M.  Andral  in  the 
French  School  of  Medicine  by  his  labours  in  the  same 
field,  may  be  attributed  to  two  causes.  Stokes  and 
Andral  both  had  a  careful  preliminary  training  in 

40 


EARLY   PROFESSIONAL   LIFE 

many  of  those  sciences  which  are  ancillary  to  medicine, 
and  with  the  undaunted  energy  and  enthusiasm  01 
youth  they  were  enabled  to  carry  their  knowledge 
and  abilities  to  the  bedside  of  the  patient  and  apply 
them  to  the  elucidation  of  the  phenomena  of  disease. 
Their  works  would  probably  never  have  seen  the  light 
had  these  opportunities  been  denied  them,  and,  as  has 
been  well  said,  "  They  afford  proof  of  the  advantages 
accruing  to  science  from  placing  young  men  of  talent 
and  education  in  a  fair  field  of  observation  and  experi- 
ence at  an  early  age.  Had  such  opportunities  been 
withheld  in  the  case  of  the  authors  in  question,  even 
for  a  few  years,  the  result  would  probably  have  been 
what  we  continually  see  in  the  appointments  to  great 
hospitals  in  this  country.  The  most  competent  men 
have  to  wait  in  c  hope  deferred  '  year  after  year,  until 
at  last,  when  haply  they  do  gain  the  object  of  their 
wishes,  their  ardour  is  gone,  much  of  their  knowledge 
and  habit  of  study  lost  through  disuse,  their  minds  are 
contracted  by  the  limits  of  some  petty  and  imperfect 
sphere  of  observation  to  which  circumstances  have 
confined  them,  and  last,  not  least,  the  res  angusta  domi 
has  rendered  the  engagements  of  a  scanty  private 
practice,  or  of  any  other  more  direct  way  of  getting  a 
livelihood,  of  more  pressing  importance  than  working 

41 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

for  the  science,  or  for  the  ultimate  improvement  of 
the  art,  of  medicine." r 

After  his  appointment  to  the  Meath  Hospital  the 
first  task  which  Stokes  undertook,  aided  by  his  col- 
league Graves,  was  to  effect  a  salutary  and  much 
needed  reform  in  the  system  of  clinical  teaching.  Up 
to  his  time  practically  no  real  attempt  had  been  made 
in  this  direction,  and  the  majority  of  the  students  did 
little  more  than,  in  the  parlance  of  the  day,  "  walk 
the  hospital."  The  success  that  attended  the  efforts 
of  these  two  teachers  to  organise  systematically  the 
methods  of  clinical  instruction  was  a  signal  one,  and 
crowds  of  students  not  only  from  other  British  schools, 
but  also  from  the  Continent  and  America,  attended  the 
Meath  Hospital  clinique.  The  principle  in  the  new 
system  of  clinical  teaching  was  diametrically  opposed 
to  that  adopted  by  the  "  grinders,"  or  "  crammers  " 
of  the  past  as  well  as  of  the  present  day.  It  did  not 
consist  of  "  spoonfeeding  "  the  students,  and  loading 
their  minds  with  masses  of  facts  available  chiefly  for 
purposes  of  examination,  but  consisted  in  a  systematic 
effort  "to  teach  the  individual  pupil,  to  encourage 
him  to  learn,  to  show  him  how  to  teach  himself,  to 
bring  him  into  the  true  relation  in  which  he  ought  to 

1  Britith  and  Foreign  Medical  Review,  1837,  p.  287. 
42 


EARLY   PROFESSIONAL   LIFE 

stand  with  his  instructor,  to  make  him  familiar  with 
bedside  medicine,  to  show  him  the  value  of  every  new 
fact  and  observation  in  medicine,  and  to  make  him 
know  the  duty  as  well  as  make  him  taste  the  pleasure 
of  original  investigation." 

The  following  extracts  from  his  letters  written  at 
this  time  will  show  with  what  energy  Stokes  entered 
on  his  career  as  a  public  lecturer  : — 

"April  15,  1826. — On  the  night  before  my  first 
lecture  I  sat  up  until  past  three  in  the  morning  tran- 
scribing what  I  had  prepared.  I  did  not  finish  the 
task,  as,  from  sheer  fatigue  both  of  mind  and  body,  I 
was  obliged  to  relinquish  it.  At  six  in  the  morning, 
however,  I  sprang  from  bed  and  recommenced  my 
labours,  which  I  finished  before  breakfast.  When  the 
hour  came  crowds  began  to  pour  into  the  great  theatre 
where  I  was  to  make  my  debut.  I  found  myself 
quite  composed,  though  as  I  ascended  the  stairs  an 
excellent  fellow,  who  had  all  along  shown  the  greatest 
anxiety  about  my  success,  said,  'Stokes,  my  dear 
fellow,  you  had  better  take  a  pinch  of  snuff,  you  look 
rather  pale.'  I  felt  all  his  kindness,  but  refused  the 
offer.  On  entering  the  room  I  found  it  completely 
full,  and  the  burst  of  applause  which  is  intended 
always  to  encourage  a  young  lecturer,  agitated  me 

43 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

terribly.  I,  however,  advanced  to  the  table,  and 
began  with  a  tremulous  voice,  but  after  the  first  two 
or  three  sentences  all  my  fear  vanished  ;  I  saw  that  I 
had  rivetted  the  attention  of  my  hearers,  and  feeling 
the  importance  of  my  subject  I  was  carried  away 
and  every  difficulty  vanished.  At  the  conclusion  the 
applause  was  loud  and  long  continued.  All  my  friends 
came  about  me  shaking  hands  and  wishing  me  joy  for 
my  success.  It  was  a  proud  moment,  but  soon  fol- 
lowed by  depression  and  violent  headache.  So  after 
going  round  the  wards  I  returned  home." 

In  the  autumn  and  winter  of  1826  Dublin  was 
visited  by  one  of  the  severest  epidemics  of  typhus  that 
has  occurred  in  Ireland  during  the  present  century. 
In  the  following  extracts  from  letters  written  at  the 
time  by  Stokes  a  graphic  and  ghastly  picture  is  given 
of  the  appalling  scenes  that  were  of  every-day  occur- 
rence during  the  epidemic  : — 

"September  17,  1826. — Were  you  in  Dublin  just 
now  you  would  be  shocked  at  the  distress,  aggravated 
by  disease,  under  which  the  lower  classes  are  labouring. 
They  are  literally  lying  in  the  streets  under  fever, 
turned  by  force  out  of  their  wretched  lodgings,  their 
bed  the  cold  ground  and  the  sky  their  only  roof.  We 


44 


EARLY   PROFESSIONAL   LIFE 

have  now  240  cases  r  in  the  Meath  Hospital  of  fever, 
and  yet  we  are  daily  obliged  to  refuse  admittance  to 
crowds  of  miserable  objects  labouring  under  the 
severest  form  of  the  disease.  God  help  the  poor  ! 
I  often  wonder  why  any  of  them  who  can  afford  it 
should  remain  in  this  land  of  poverty  and  misrule. 
Government  has  now  opened  in  different  parts  of  the 
town  hospitals  with  accommodation  for  1,100  patients, 
and  yet  this  is  not  half  enough.  I  walked  out  the 
other  night,  and  in  passing  by  a  lane  my  attention  was 
arrested  by  a  crowd  or  persons  gathered  in  a  circle 
round  a  group  which  occupied  the  steps  of  a  hall 
door.  This  was  a  family  consisting  of  a  father, 
mother,  and  three  wretched  children  who  had 
been  just  expelled  from  their  lodgings  as  having 
fever.  The  father  was  in  high  delirium,  and  as  I 
approached  him  started  off  and  ran  down  the  street  ; 
the  mother  was  lying  at  the  foot  of  the  door  per- 
fectly insensible,  with  an  infant  screaming  on  the 
breast,  whence  it  had  sought  milk  in  vain;  and 
the  other  two  filled  the  air  with  their  lamen- 
tations. It  was  a  shocking  sight  indeed.  No  one 
would  go  near  them  to  bring  even  a  drop  of  cold 
water.  In  a  short  time,  however,  I  succeeded  in 

1  Shortly  afterwards  this  hospital  accommodated  300  fever  patients. 

45  D 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

having  them  all  carried  to  the  hospital,  where  they 
have  since  recovered." 

"October  27,  1826. — I  never  remember  Dublin  in 
such  a  frightful  state.  As  yet  the  fever  raging  here 
has  not  been  very  fatal,  but  the  mortality  is  on  the 
increase.  It  was  at  first  one  in  forty,  then  it  came 
down  to  one  in  thirty-five,  and  now  it  is  one  in 
twenty.  It  is  calculated  that  should  the  epidemic  go 
on  in  this  way  for  a  year  one  third  of  the  inhabitants 
will  have  suffered  fever.  There  are  at  present  1,414 
beds  in  different  hospitals  open  for  fever  patients,  but 
this  is  a  mere  drop  in  the  bucket.  Were  there  five 
times  the  number  open  they  would  be  filled  in  a  day. 
I  am  working  away  preparing  the  winter's  lectures  ; 
occupied  from  half-past  seven  in  the  morning  till 
twelve  at  night  just  as  hard  as  I  can  work  at  these, 
and  with  the  hospital  and  my  practice  I  am  tolerably 
knocked  up  in  the  evening.  My  health  is  good, 
thank  God,  and  my  spirits  are  good  also,  except 
sometimes,  when  a  cloud  descends  upon  my  mind  and 
darkens  all  within.  It  is  a  great  comfort  that  con- 
stant exposure  to  the  infection  diminishes  the  proba- 
bility of  taking  this  fever,  and  I  now  do  not  fear  it 
in  the  slightest  degree." 

But  his  undaunted  courage  did  not  render  him 
46 


EARLY   PROFESSIONAL   LIFE 

proof  against  danger.  In  the  following  spring  he 
received  a  poisoned  wound  in  the  hand  while  engaged 
in  dissection  and  lay  seriously  ill  for  two  days.  The 
delicacy  that  ensued  may  have  rendered  him  more 
susceptible  of  infection,  and  in  March  the  fever  seized 
him  and  nearly  proved  fatal.  However,  he  battled 
through  it,  and  in  April  we  find  him  writing  to  the 
lady  who  was  afterwards  his  wife  from  his  father's 
country  house  in  the  Dublin  hills  where  he  had  been 
sent  to  recruit. 

"  BALLINTEER,  April  13,  1827. 
"  I  am  here  at  last,  and  systematically  employed 
in  recruiting  my  shattered  health.  I  cannot  express 
in  words  the  delight  I  felt  in  once  more  breathing 
the  free  air  of  heaven  and  beholding  the  hills  among 
which  my  childhood  was  passed  clothed  in  all  their 
splendid  and  varying  hues.  For  eight  months  I  have 
been  immured  in  the  smoky  city,  my  mind  constantly 
on  the  stretch — with  hardly  a  moment  I  could  call 
my  own.  This  probation,  ending  in  a  long  and 
painful  illness,  has  given  me  a  longing  for  rest  and 
retirement  of  no  usual  intensity. 

"  The  common  earth,  the  air,  the  skies 
To  me  are  opening  Paradise." 

In  April,  1828,  Stokes  was  married  to  Miss  Mary 
47 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

Black,  a  lady  four  years  his  junior,  to  whom  he  had 
been  attached  since  1822,  when  he  first  met  her  at 
Milngavie,  near  Glasgow,  and  to  whom  he  had  been 
engaged  for  three  years.  She  was  the  second  daughter 
of  Mr.  John  Black,  of  Glasgow,  and  his  wife  Mar- 
garet, daughter  of  Colonel  MacNair.  He  brought 
his  wife  home  to  his  father's  house,  No.  16,  Harcourt 
Street,  where  they  remained  for  upwards  of  three 
years. 


48 


Ill 

ASIATIC  CHOLERA — CONTRIBUTIONS  TO  "LONDON 
MEDICAL  AND  SURGICAL  JOURNAL  " — Swiss 
TOUR — DEATH  OF  DR.  MACNAMARA — CON- 
TRIBUTIONS TO  "  CYCLOPAEDIA  OF  PRACTICAL 
MEDICINE  " 

T  N  1832  Asiatic  cholera  broke  out  in  Ireland  for 
*-  the  first  time  in  this  country.  In  1826  Graves 
had  lectured  on  this  disease,  and  predicted  its  arrival 
here.  It  reached  Sunderland  in  1831  ;  but  this  pre- 
diction, as  he  himself  states,  was  not  original  with 
him,  for  he  had  it  from  Dr.  Brinkley,1  who  had  also 
foretold  the  failure  of  the  potato  crop  and  the  conse- 
quent famine  in  Ireland.  It  so  happened  that  William 
Stokes,  together  with  the  late  Mr.  Rumley,  reported 
the  first  case  of  the  epidemic  that  appeared,  and  at  no 
small  personal  risk.  They  had  been  sent  to  inquire 
into  the  cause  of  a  sudden  and  mysterious  death  which 
had  occurred  at  Kingstown,  then  little  more  than  a 

1  Lord  Bishop  of  Cloyne. 

49 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

seaside  village.  Neither  of  these  physicians  had  ever 
seen  a  case  of  this  disease,  either  before  or  after  death. 
The  result  of  their  inspection,  however,  was  that 
they  pronounced  the  deceased  to  have  died  of  the 
worst  type  of  Asiatic  cholera.  Outside  the  house  in 
which  the  body  lay  a  crowd  was  anxiously  awaiting 
their  decision.  The  announcement  was  at  first  re- 
ceived with  silent  dismay,  then  came  a  burst  of  frenzy 
and  indignation.  A  furious  mob  of  men,  women,  and 
children  hurled  stones,  mud,  brickbats  at  them  from 
all  sides.  They  escaped  injury  almost  by  a  miracle  ; 
their  carriage  was  battered  and  broken  by  the  missiles 
thrown  at  them,  and  it  was  only  by  whip  and  spur 
that  their  postillion  outstripped  their  pursuers.  The 
outbreak  of  the  disease  in  various  parts  of  Ireland 
within  a  few  days  of  this  occurrence  set  all  doubts  as 
to  its  nature  at  rest  and  verified  the  conclusion  that 
had  been  arrived  at. 

The  lectures  now  contributed  by  William  Stokes 
to  the  London  Medical  and  Surgical  "Journal  for 
two  years  proved  the  mainstay  of  this  periodical. 
The  first  were  a  course  of  Clinical  Lectures  delivered 
at  the  Meath  Hospital  during  the  Sessions  1832-33. 
The  second  were  delivered  in  the  theatre  of  the 
Park  Street  School  of  Medicine,  on  the  Theory  and 

50 


WRITINGS   ON   PRACTICAL   MEDICINE 

Practice  of  Medicine.  A  writer  in  the  London 
Quarterly  Journal  about  this  period  classes  him  as 
a  teacher  with  Crampton  and  Graves,  and  comments 
on  his  great  success  as  a  lecturer. 

In  1832  he  published  clinical  observations  on  the 
Exhibition  of  Opium,1  and  a  paper  on  the  Curability 
of  Phthisis  Pulmonalis. 2  In  1833  and  1834  he  con- 
tributed various  papers  to  the  "London  Cyclopaedia  of 
Practical  Medicine,"  vols.  ii.  and  iii.  ;  and  in  1834  he 
became  editor  of  the  Dublin  Journal  of  Medical  Science^ 
in  which  periodical  he  brought  out  many  valuable 
papers  on  Thoracic  Pathology .3 

In  1835  he  commenced  writing  his  work  on 
the  Diseases  of  the  Chest,  in  which  his  object  was 
to  assist  the  researches  of  those  already  acquainted 
with  the  work  of  Laennec,  Forbes,  C.  J.  B.  Williams, 
and  James  Clark,  by  guiding  them  into  a  path  of 
accurate  observation  and  of  just  reasoning  upon  phy- 
sical signs  and  their  association  with  symptoms,  for,  he 
says,  "  it  is  in  this  that  the  medical  mind — the  mem 
medica — is  seen."  Through  the  study  of  pathology  he 
strove  to  remove  the  reproach  of  uncertainty  under 

1  See  London  Medical  and  Surgical  Journal,  vol.  i.  ;  Dublin  Journal  of 
Medical  Science,  ist  Series,  p.  125  (1832). 

-  London  Medical  and  Surgical  Journal,  vol.  ii.  p.  380. 

3  Vol.  ii.  p.  i,  ist  Series  ;  vol.  iii.  p.  50  ;  vol.  xiv.  p.  131. 

51 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

which  his  art  had  hitherto  laboured,  and  by  the  dis- 
covery and  arrangement  of  facts  to  lift  the  diagnosis 
of  disease  into  a  science,  placing  it  on  a  sure  basis 
that  time,  with  its  mutations  of  opinion,  can  never 
shake. 

In  the  summer  of  1836  his  health  showed  signs  of 
breaking  down.  He  was  often  disabled  from  work 
for  days  by  headache,  the  acute  pain  in  his  temple  "  as 
a  nail  piercing  to  his  brain,"  fits  of  depression  came 
upon  him,  and  his  joyous,  healthy  nature  was  over- 
shadowed by  gloom.  He  was  at  last  prevailed  on  to 
relax  and  take  a  month's  holiday,  and  he  writes  after- 
wards, "  My  late  depression  was  produced  by  my 
wretched  health.  I  think  that  some  dreadful  malady 
would  have  attacked  me  had  I  not  left  home  to 
travel." 

The  Rev.  Sydney  Smith,  Mr.  Grey,  Mr.  Perrin, 
and  Mr.  William  MacDougall,  were  his  companions 
on  this  tour.  With  the  last  mentioned  he  had  con- 
tracted a  strong  friendship  in  boyhood,  which  lasted 
till  death.  Mr.  MacDougall  was  a  delightful  com- 
panion. His  passionate  love  of  nature,  high  spirits, 
and  daring  love  of  adventure  produced  an  effect  like 
a  wild  sea  breeze  or  bracing  mountain  air  on  the 
exhausted  frame  and  over-worked  brain  of  William 

52 


WRITINGS   ON   PRACTICAL   MEDICINE 

Stokes.  Like  boys  set  free  from  school  they  rushed 
along  from  town  to  town  through  Holland,  Belgium, 
up  the  Rhine,  and  through  the  Alps,  reaching  home 
again  in  the  short  space  of  one  month.  The  following 
extracts  from  his  letters  will  help  to  show  how  deep 
was  the  impression  then  made,  by  the  new  scenes 
he  visited,  on  his  receptive  and  poetic  nature. 

"  BRUSSELS,  August  n,  1836. 

"  Friday  week  I  left  you,  and  here  we  are  in  the 
highest  spirits,  and,  thank  God,  my  head  is  behaving 
very  well.  We  have  seen  Ostend,  Bruges,  Ghent, 
Antwerp.  ...  At  Bruges  I  had  one  of  my  splitting 
headaches,  but  it  went  off  by  noon.  Here  I  first  saw 
one  of  the  wonderful  cathedral  churches  of  the  Conti- 
nent, with  their  glorious  paintings  and  decorations. 
Everything  was  new,  everything  delightful.  Each 
stone  in  the  town  seemed  as  if  it  were  freshly  polished. 
We  strolled  about  from  church  to  church  until  noon, 
when  we  dined  and  started  by  the  canal  for  Ghent. 
We  had  a  charming  day,  and  as  the  gaily-painted  and 
gilded  barge  glided  silently  along  the  canal,  we  lay  on 
the  quarter-deck  covered  with  an  awning  and  took 
our  dessert  of  fruit  with  new  delight.  We  passed 
through  a  wonderful  country,  flat  as  this  sheet  of 

53 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

paper,  but  cultivated,  aye,  every  inch  of  it,  in  the 
highest  degree.  The  fields  are  very  small,  and  divided 
by  sweet  hedgerows,  along  which  there  grow  a  pro- 
fusion of  trees,  so  that,  at  a  little  distance,  the  effect  of 
a  forest  was  produced.  The  people  here  seemed  happy 
as  the  day  was  long.  Every  five  minutes  we  passed 
long  boats  laden  with  coal,  often  drawn  by  women  ; 
but  even  these  women  were  gay  and  happy.  The 
coal  barges  were  the  cleanest  things  I  ever  saw.  No 
soiling  from  the  coal,  which  was  in  great  blocks,  all 
in  their  own  places,  and  covered  with  painted  boards, 
the  ropes  beautifully  coiled  up  and  perfectly  white  and 
clean.  We  wandered  about  Ghent,  which  is  full  of 
the  most  curious  churches,  and  strolled  through  the 
dark,  irregular  lanes  surrounding  the  cathedral  and 
church  of  St.  Jacob's  and  St.  Michael's.  At  every 
step  effects  such  as  Prout  so  well  represents  were 
produced  by  the  dark,  massive  towers  of  some  old 
church  or  the  wild,  fantastic  tracery  of  some  Gothic 
arch,  with  its  thousand  ribs  and  ornaments  worn  and 
blackened  by  time.  Over  some  of  them  eight  cen- 
turies have  passed,  yet  they  are  here  still  more  beautiful 
than  the  day  when  the  eye  of  their  architect  first  rested 
on  his  completed  labour.  We  started  at  an  early  • 
hour ;  as  we  entered  the  cathedral  the  service  of  the 

54 


WRITINGS  ON  PRACTICAL   MEDICINE 

dead  was  being  chaunted,  and  the  organ  pealed  its 
wailing  tone  through  our  hearts.  .  .  .  Here  we  saw 
many  great  pictures  by  John  of  Bruges  and  Van 
Eyck,  and  a  wonderful  series  of  paintings  of  the  life 
of  Christ.  Never  did  I  see  these  subjects  so  handled 
before.  In  particular  the  angel  comforting  Christ, 
and  the  scourging.  In  the  first  the  Saviour  is  seated 
leaning  His  head  on  the  angel's  breast  looking  up  to 
him,  with  despair  and  hope  so  expressed  and  combined 
as  to  form  a  result  altogether  inconceivable.  The 
scourging  is  an  example  of  that  true  art  of  painting,  on 
which  you  will  see  a  chapter  in  the  essays  of  Elia,  an 
art  by  which  the  imagination  is  left  to  fill  in  the  thing 
represented.  The  scourging  is  passed  and  the 
Redeemer  lies  bound  and  bleeding.  He  seems  as 
if  thrown  at  the  foot  of  a  mountain,  alone,  desecrated, 
and  in  torture.  In  the  church  of  St.  Michael  there 
is  Vandyke's  Crucifixion,  a  beautiful  painting,  but  it 
is  a  picture  on  which  you  look  with  more  pleasure 
than  pain.  Everything  is  soft,  rich,  nay,  voluptuous. 
Great  as  he  was,  he  wanted  his  Master's  strength  and 
depth  of  feeling.  He  was  taught  to  colour,  but  could 
not  be  taught  to  feel  as  a  painter  of  the  death  of  Christ 
should  feel.  Yesterday  we  tore  ourselves  from  Ghent 
and  travelled  by  diligence  to  Antwerp,  passing  through 

55 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

the  richest  part  of  the  Low  Countries,  and  we  saw  the 
great  tower  of  the  cathedral  at  a  little  before  five 
o'clock.  There  it  stood  before  us,  six  hundred  feet 
high,  with  its  open  work  sculpture  and  gossamer 
arches,  tenants  of  the  deep  blue  sky  that  stretched 
behind  it.  After  reaching  the  hotel  we  rushed  to  the 
cathedral.  The  interior  is  different  from  anything  I 
have  yet  seen.  It  is  not  overloaded  with  ornament, 
nor  is  the  altar  shut  in  by  a  screen,  so  that  from  the 
great  door  you  look  down  to  it  through  a  long  vista 
of  plain,  severe  Gothic  arches.  It  was  getting  dark, 
but  we  saw  that  most  glorious  of  glorious  pictures,  the 
Descent  from  the  Cross,  by  Rubens.  After  gazing  on 
it  my  eyes  dazzled  and  my  heart  palpitated,  and  I  left 
it  most  unhappy,  for  I  felt  as  though  I  knew  nothing 
of  it,  and  feared  that  I  should  not  see  it  again." 

"  August  29. — The  last  three  days  have  been  per- 
fectly delightful.  Look  at  the  map  and  trace  us  from 
Stuttgart  to  Ulm — on  the  glorious  Danube — from 
thence  to  the  Austrian  extremity  of  the  lovely  lake 
of  Constance,  and  then  following  the  Rhine  to  its 
source  among  the  Alps  of  the  Grisons.  Yesterday  we 
spent  visiting  the  extraordinary  baths  of  Pfafers. 
Imagine  an  Alpine  valley  richly  wooded  and  running 

56 


WRITINGS   ON   PRACTICAL   MEDICINE 

up  for  many  miles  through  mountains  of  five,  six,  and 
seven  thousand  feet  high.  Their  sides  clothed  with 
the  most  beautiful  wood  and  green  sward,  and  con- 
trasting with  the  grander  heights  which  were  covered 
with  eternal  snow.  Imagine  the  river  of  the  gigantic 
valley  roaring  through  a  gorge  three  miles  long  and 
not  more  than  from  fifty  to  a  hundred  yards  wide,  and 
with  perpendicular  sides  of  500  feet  in  height.  At 
the  bottom  of  this  stands,  on  a  natural  table  of  stone, 
the  bathhouse  of  the  monks  of  the  abbey,  the  most 
extraordinary  place  that  can  be  well  conceived.  All 
supplies  are  let  down  by  cords  from  the  top  of  the 
mountain.  We  arrived  here  about  noon,  and  sat  down 
at  the  table  d'hote,  at  which  the  Abbot  presided.  We 
were  surrounded  by  bilious  Germans,  rheumatic  Rus- 
sians, and  green-sick  girls  from  the  Tyrol.  They  all 
looked  wretchedly  ill,  and  no  wonder,  for  they  have 
to  live  in  a  house  where  the  sun  hardly  shines,  and  to 
drink  warm  water  and  sour  beer.  After  dinner  we 
went  to  see  the  source  of  the  hot  spring,  but  this  is  a 
scene  which  cannot  be  described.  It  is  too  extra- 
ordinary, too  sublime  for  me  to  convey  any  idea  of  it 
to  you.  To-day  we  passed  through  the  Via  Mala,  a 
road  cut  through  the  living  rock  along  a  gorge  of  fifteen 
hundred  feet  in  depth,  and  so  narrow  that  in  many 

57 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

places  we  could  throw  a  stone  against  the  opposite 
side.  But  I  cannot  describe  it  to  you  with  its  roaring 
river  a  thousand  feet  beneath  us,  and  its  lightning- 
blasted  pines,  and  its  beauties  and  horrors.  The  great 
difficulty  in  this  country  is  to  adapt  yourself  to  its 
giant  magnitude.  A  mountain  seems  within  a  mile 
of  you  when  it  is  six  or  eight  miles  off.  You  think 
it  about  eight  hundred  feet  high.  It  is  three  or  four 
thousand,  and  so  on." 

In  connection  with  the  visit  to  Pfafers,  once  so 
celebrated  and  fashionable  a  resort,  Stokes  used  to 
relate  an  amusing  anecdote.  During  a  conversation 
he  had  with  one  of  the  local  physicians,  who  was 
dilating  with  enthusiasm  on  the  magically  curative 
effects  of  the  waters  on  all  sorts  and  conditions  of 
disease,  Stokes  asked,  for  his  own  information,  some- 
thing about  the  composition  of  these  far-famed  waters. 
The  answer,  if  not  scientific,  was  certainly  friendly  : 
"  Well !  as  you  are  a  bro-ther,  I  will  tell  you  :  they 
do  contain  no-thing  !  " 

On  his  return  home  Stokes  resumed  his  large  prac- 
tice, commenced  lectures  at  the  hospital,  and  could 
seize  only  occasional  intervals  for  working  at  his  book 
on  the  Chest.  He  writes  :  "  I  am  now  quite  well ; 

58 


WRITINGS   ON    PRACTICAL   MEDICINE 

I  am  not  working  too  hard  at  the  desk.  Indeed,  I 
have  no  time  to  do  so,  for  I  am  kept  very  full  of 
practice."  In  October  he  went  to  visit  Dr.  Mac- 
namara,  who  had  fallen  ill  while  visiting  in  the  county 
of  Mayo,  and  whom  he  brought  back  to  Dublin. 

"  October  27,  1836. — You  will  be  sorry  to  hear  that 
I  have  been  for  two  days  down  to  Connemara,  to  see 
poor  Macnamara.  He  is  dying.  Oh  !  what  a  tragedy 
it  will  be  !  We  expect  him  up  to  town  this  week.  I 
never  saw  the  glorious  Lough  Corrib  look  so  beautiful. 
I  was  entertained  by  Miss  Blake  ;  she  is  a  perfect 
specimen  of  the  old  Irish  aristocracy.  Tall,  dis- 
tinguished, elegantly  formed,  with  dark  hair  and 
exquisitely  fair  complexion  ;  she  looked,  as  she  stood 
in  her  tapestried  hall,  a  lady  of  romance  ;  her  youth, 
her  mourning  dress,  her  classic  head,  and  the  sym- 
bols of  her  loved  religion,  all  combined  to  form  a 
picture  not  easily  to  be  forgotten.  The  castle,  grey 
and  worn,  stands  on  a  green  platform  over  the  clear  and 
rapid  river  through  which  the  whole  waters  of  Lough 
Mask  and  Lough  Corrib  rush  to  the  sea.  It  reverses 
Byron's  simile,  '  All  green  and  wildly  fresh  without,' 
&c.,  &c.  You  will  say  I  am  raving ;  but  in  truth  a 
little  time  will  level  these  ancient  castles,  and  their 
highborn  and  honourable  inhabitants,  and  the  feelings 

59 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

which  their  communion  creates,  and  then  '  utility  ' 
will  have  its  reign,  and  '  common  sense,'  laughing  at 
the  past  and  the  beautiful,  will  build  factories  with  the 
remains  of  history,  make  money,  and  die." 

"November  25,  1836. — I  should  have  answered 
your  letter  before  but  that  I  really  had  no  time,  not 
as  much  as  would  have  sufficed  to  write  even  a  note  ; 
and  this  letter  I  write  from  the  drawing-room  of  poor 
Macnamara,  who  is  rapidly  approaching  his  deliver- 
ance from  this  world's  cares,  and  sorrows  and  suffer- 
ings. He  has  just  asked  me,  'Stokes,  am  I  dying?  ' 
I  told  him  the  truth.  His  answer  was,  '  Don't  leave 
me.'  So  I  am  staying  here  to  watch  him  to  the  last. 
He  is  scarcely  suffering,  and,  indeed,  the  act  of  death 
is  almost  always  painless.  It  is  a  natural  change 
without  unnecessary  suffering  ;  and  are  not  these 
delusions  of  hope,  these  plans  for  hereafter,  that  incredu- 
lity as  to  approaching  death,  are  not  these  provisions, 
merciful  provisions,  to  smooth  the  dark  way  from 
earth  to  immortality  ?  Even  when  the  departing 
being  seems  in  agony  he  is  often  not  so.  The  limbs 
may  be  convulsed  and  the  respiration  laboured,  yet 
without  pain  or  consciousness  even  of  the  apparent 
suffering.  We  pass  away  silently,  calmly.  The 
struggle  is  seen  but  not  felt." 

60 


WRITINGS   ON   PRACTICAL   MEDICINE 

Early  in  the  following  year  his  wife  was  in  Scotland 
watching  by  her  mother's  death-bed.  Mrs.  Black  was 
a  fine  example  of  the  high-bred  Scottish  lady  of  the  old 
school.  She  died  in  March,  1837,  and  Stokes  writes 
to  his  wife  :  "  This  is  not  the  first  time  that  we  have 
tasted  the  bitterness  of  death,  nor  will  it  be  the  last, 
but  seek  to  be  tranquil,  for  you  have  high  duties  to 
perform  here  ;  be  a  consolation  to  your  dear  sisters 
who  are  the  greatest  sufferers  now,  and  may  God's 
peace  be  around  you.  You  must  bear  up  for  your 
children's  sake,  and  not  yield  too  much.  I  had  hoped 
up  to  this  evening  to  be  able  to  go  over,  but  fate  seems 
to  forbid  it.  I  worked  last  night  till  half-past  eleven 
in  hopes  of  being  able  to  start  by  the  Mercury  this 
morning,  but  it  was  not  to  be ;  then  I  trusted  to  be 
able  to  go  to-night,  but  now  three  of  my  patients  are 
dangerously  ill,  and  I  cannot,  ought  not,  to  leave 
them.  .  .  .  May  God  preserve  you  in  your  hour  of 
sorrow. 

"I  have  resolved  on  taking  the  house  (Mount 
Malpas)  at  Killiney  ;  it  will  be  such  a  peaceful  and 
beautiful  retreat  for  you  and  your  dear,  dear  sisters,  and 
I  shall  have  finished  my  book  now  in  three  days.  .  .  ." 

The  book  alluded  to  here  was  the  above-mentioned 
work  on  the  chest. 

61  E 


WILLIAM    STOKES 

During  the  years  1833-35  his  labours,  both  medical 
and  literary,  were  unremitting.  He  did  not  confine 
himself  to  the  subjects  on  which  he  is  best  known  as 
an  authority,  for  in  the  "  Cyclopaedia  of  Practical 
Medicine,"  to  which  he  was  at  this  time  a  frequent 
contributor,  are  to  be  found  articles  by  him  on 
dysphagia,  enteritis,  gastritis,  gastro-enteritis,  inflam- 
mation of  the  liver,  and  peritonitis. 

Of  these  papers  probably  the  most  important  is  that 
on  "  Peritonitis  from  Perforation  of  the  Serous  Mem- 
brane." He  credits  Graves  with  having  revolutionised 
the  practice  hitherto  adopted  in  the  treatment  of  this 
disease  by  the  bold  administration  of  opium  in  place 
of  the  routine  treatment  then  in  use  of  bleeding  and 
purgatives.  The  system  advocated  by  Stokes  was  "to 
support  the  strength  of  the  patient  so  as  to  gain  time 
and  to  diminish  as  far  as  possible  the  peristaltic  action 
of  the  intestine." 

In  connection  with  this  subject  the  author  of  an 
able  article  on  the  life  and  work  of  Stokes,1  observes 
of  Stokes  and  Graves  that,  guided  by  these  principles, 
these  eminent  men  discarded  bleeding  and  purgatives 
and  boldly  administered  opium  in  such  quantities  and 
with  such  striking  benefit  to  the  patient  as  to  change 

1  See  Birmingham  Medical  Review,  April,  1878. 
62 


WRITINGS   ON   PRACTICAL   MEDICINE 

the  whole  aspect  of  the  therapeutics  of  this  disorder. 
The  ordinary  physician  is  now  well  acquainted  with 
all  this.  At  the  time,  however,  when  these  researches 
were  published,  the  treatment  of  peritonitis  was  little 
more  than  a  "  contemplation  of  death."  We  believe 
that  no  single  improvement  in  the  medical  art,  except 
the  use  of  anaesthetics,  can  be  placed  on  a  level  with 
the  one  now  described.  A  host  of  important  thera- 
peutic applications  necessarily  occurred  as  direct  infer- 
ences from  the  principles  and  practice  here  laid  down. 
We  in  these  days  find  it  difficult  to  think  of  the  treat- 
ment of  peritonitis,  whether  arising  from  internal 
causes  or  from  the  operations  of  the  surgeon,  as  apart 
from  the  use  of  opium,  but  this  great  advance  we  owe 
to  the  insight  and  clinical  skill  of  Graves  and  Stokes. 
Alike  in  foreign  countries  and  at  home  they  have 
obtained  due  credit  for  their  work  in  this  particular, 
for  a  solid  step  in  advance  had  been  achieved  by  them. 
Had  they  done  nothing  else,  mankind  would  have 
good  cause  to  hold  them  in  remembrance. 


63 


IV 
WORK  ON  DISEASES  OF  THE  CHEST 

AS  the  result  of  several  years  of  increasing  labour 
in  private  practice,  in  clinical  teaching  in  the 
Meath  Hospital,  and  in  lecturing  in  the  Park  Street 
School  of  Medicine,  the  work  of  Stokes  on  the  Diag- 
nosis and  Treatment  of  Diseases  of  the  Chest  appeared 
in  the  year  1837.  Sir  Dominic  (then  Dr.)  Corrigan, 
in  his  exhaustive  review  of  this  book,  says  that  its 
appearance  was  "  hailed  with  delight  both  by  those 
who  love  their  profession  as  a  science,  and  by  those 
who  more  humbly  but  not  less  usefully  cultivate  it 
as  a  practical  art,  seeking  in  each  new  page  that  is 
presented  to  them  the  means  of  curing  or  alleviating 
disease."  ' 

Prior  to  the  works  of  Corvisart  and  Laennec  little 
or  nothing  had  been  done  in  elucidating  the  phenomena 
of  thoracic  disease.  Laennec's  work  first  appeared  in 

1  Dublin  Medical  Journal,  vol.  xi.  p.  466. 
64 


WORK   ON   DISEASES   OF   THE   CHEST 

1819,  a  second  edition  having  been  published  in  1826, 
and  to  this  celebrated  author  must  be  given  the  credit 
of  the  discovery,  explanation,  and  connection  of 
physical  signs  with  organic  changes,  and  with  the 
symptoms  and  history  of  the  case,  the  importance  of 
testing  the  value  of  physical  signs  by  the  history  and 
symptoms  of  the  disease,  which  in  their  turn  should  be 
corrected  by  the  physical  signs.  Stokes  carried  on 
this  line  of  investigation,  it  being  his  belief  that  pro- 
gress in  any  art  is  gradual  and  cautious,  that  the  wisest 
worker  rises  on  the  shoulders  of  his  predecessor.  Men 
should,  as  it  were,  "  enter  in  "  to  the  labour  of  other 
men,  and  to  advance  knowledge  one  should  be  content 
to  take  up  the  thread  where  the  last  investigator  laid 
it  down,  and  from  that  point  to  carry  on  his  work. 
Speaking  of  Laennec's  "imperishable  volume,"  Corrigan 
observed  that "  it  would  have  seemed  almost  unpardon- 
able heresy  to  have  criticised  or  added  to  it,  and 
accordingly,  until  the  appearance  of  the  present  work, 
we  have  had  little  more  than  compilations  in  various 
shapes  and  forms  of  the  original.  It  required  power 
and  talent  of  no  ordinary  range  to  add  to  the  produc- 
tion, to  supply  the  omissions,  and  to  correct  the  errors 
of  such  a  master."  These  effects  Sir  Dominic  believed 
were  achieved  in  Stokes'  work. 

65 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

After  the  publication  of  Laennec's  work,  Stokes 
observed  that  the  followers  of  Laennec,  as  a  natural 
result  of  his  discoveries,  neglected  to  attend  to  the  fact 
that  "  physical  signs  only  reveal  mechanical  conditions 
which  may  proceed  from  the  most  different  causes, 
and  that  the  latter  are  to  be  determined  by  a  process  of 
reasoning  on  their  connection  and  succession,  on  their 
relation  to  time,  and  their  association  with  symptoms" 
The  result  of  this  mistake  often  was  that  the  diagnosis 
founded  on  physical  signs  did  not  coincide  with  that 
obtained  from  symptoms,  a  circumstance  which  at  the 
time  gave  unmixed  satisfaction  to  the  opponents  of 
Laennec  and  his  discovery.  A  good  result,  however, 
followed  this  mistake,  for  it  fixed  on  the  mind  of  the 
physician  more  firmly  than  it  would  otherwise  have 
done  the  necessity  for  "  the  close  connection  of  the 
study  of  physical  signs  with  that  of  symptoms,  so  as  to 
illustrate  their  mutual  bearing  on  diagnosis,  and  remove 
that  unjust  opprobrium  thrown  on  the  advocates  of 
auscultation  that  they  neglect  the  study  of  symptoms  "  ' 

It  should  always  be  remembered  that  physical  signs 
of  themselves  are  frequently  of  permanent  importance, 
and  Stokes'  remarks  on  this  point,  Sir  D.  Corrigan 
observes,  should  never  be  forgotten. 

1  "  A  Treatise  on  the  Diagnosis  and  Treatment  of  Diseases  of  the 
Chest."  Preface.  1837. 

66 


WORK    ON   DISEASES   OF   THE   CHEST 

"  It  is  in  the  curable  diseases  that  their  great  value 
is  seen.  Indeed,  in  a  large  proportion  of  such  cases, 
the  first  effect  of  treatment  is  to  render  disease  latent^ 
and  to  cause  an  absolute  necessity  for  the  study  of 
physical  signs" 

The  work  commences  by  an  exposition  of  the 
peculiarities  of  the  anatomy  and  physiology  of  the 
thorax,  peculiarities  which  render  it  more  adapted 
for  the  production  of  physical  signs  than  either  the 
cranial  or  abdominal  cavities. 

"  If  we  take  a  general  view  of  the  cranial,  thoracic, 
and  abdominal  cavities,  it  would  appear  that  in  none 
of  them  is  the  diagnosis  of  disease  from  symptoms 
so  difficult  as  in  the  chest.  But  further  investiga- 
tion will  prove  to  us  that  there  is  no  cavity  in  the 
disease  of  which,  when  we  combine  the  study  of 
symptoms  properly  so  called  with  that  of  physical 
signs,  the  determination  of  the  nature,  extent,  and 
modification  of  disease  is  so  easy  and  certain." 

Of  the  nine  sections  into  which  Stokes  divides 
his  book  the  second — that  on  bronchitis — is  the  most 
voluminous  and  exhaustive.  In  fact,  it  includes  the 
consideration  of  topics  which  are  remote  from  the 
inflammatory  affection  of  the  bronchi,  such  as  dila- 
tation and  atrophy  of  their  terminations  themselves, 

67 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

As  one  of  the  reviewers  of  the  work  has  said,  "It 
appears  to  be  a  prominent  aim  of  the  author  to 
make  the  study  of  bronchitis  a  key  to  thoracic 
pathology." 

This  work  offers  many  examples  of  the  author's 
exceptional  power  of  description.  It  is,  as  Dr. 
Sibson  has  said,  a  "series  of  living  pictures  of 
disease  ; "  and  Dr.  Hudson  has  observed,  "  It  is  the 
pictorial  power  which  gives  such  vividness  and 
reality  to  Dr.  Stokes'  delineations  of  disease,  com- 
bining close  reasoning  with  artistic  power  and  com- 
prehensive grasp  of  his  subject."  Thus  when  speaking 
of  the  appearance  and  symptoms  of  patients  labouring 
under  what  he  states  may  be  termed  congestive 
bronchitis,  those  accustomed  to  see  the  disease  will 
at  once  recognise  the  passage  as  a  picture  from 
nature,  "  The  physiognomy  is  most  characteristic, 
the  complexion  is  generally  of  a  dusky  hue,  and  the 
countenance,  though  with  an  anxious  and  melancholy 
expression,  has  in  several  cases  a  degree  of  fulness 
which  contrasts  remarkably  with  the  condition  of 
the  rest  of  the  body.  .  .  .  The  nostrils  are  dilated, 
thickened,  and  vascular.  The  lower  lip  is  enlarged, 
and  its  mucous  membrane  everted  and  livid,  giving 
a  peculiar  expression  of  anxiety,  melancholy,  and 

68 


WORK   ON   DISEASES   OF  THE   CHEST 

disease  to  the  countenance.  The  shoulders  are 
elevated  and  brought  forward,  and  the  patient 
stoops  habitually,  a  habit  contracted  in  his  various 
fits  of  orthopnoea  and  cough,  and  the  relief 
which  is  experienced  from  inclining  the  body 
forwards.  Thus  even  in  bed  we  often  find 
these  patients  sitting  up,  with  their  arms  folded, 
and  resting  on  their  knees,  and  the  head  bent 
forwards,  the  object  of  which  seems  to  be  to 
relax  the  abdominal  muscles  and  to  substitute  the 
mechanical  support  of  the  arms  for  that  of  muscles, 
which  would  interfere  with  inspiration."  * 

It  would  not,  in  the  writer's  opinion,  be  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  object  or  design  of  this  work  ir 
he  were  to  discuss  in  detail,  or  attempt  an  exhaus- 
tive analysis  of  Stokes'  "  Treatise  on  Diseases  of  the 
Chest "  ;  this  has  already  been  done  on  more  than 
one  occasion,  and  a  repetition  of  such  efforts  appears 
therefore  unnecessary  and  uncalled  for.  The  most 
important  results,  however,  of  the  researches  em- 
bodied in  the  treatise  may  be  indicated  : — 

i.  The  discovery  of  a  stage  of  pneumonia  prior 
to  that  described  by  Laennec  as  the  first. 

1  "A  Treatise  on  the  Diagnosis  and  Treatment  of  Diseases  of  the 
Chest,"  by  William  Stokes,  p.  177. 

69 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

2.  The  observation  that    contraction    of  the    side 
has  sometimes  followed   the  cure  of  pneumonia. 

3.  The  recognition  of  a  fibrous  layer  in  the  pul- 
monary pleura. 

4.  That   paralysis  of  the  intercostal    muscles   and 
diaphragm   may  result    from    pleuritic    inflammation, 
causing  a  yielding  or  bulging  of  these  muscles  when 
exposed   to  the  pressure  of  liquid   effusion. 

5.  The  discovery  of  a    new    displacement   of  the 
heart  in  consequence  of  the  rapid  absorption  of  pleu- 
ritic effusion  in  the  right  side. 

6.  That  paralysis  of  the   muscular  tissues   of  the 
bronchial  tubes  is  an  etiological  factor  in   the    pro- 
duction  of  their  dilatation. 

7.  The   application    of  auscultation    to   the  study 
of  croup   and  the  classification    or    division    of  that 
disease  into   primary  and  secondary. 

8.  The  employment  of  the  stethoscope  as  an  aid 
to  the  detection  of  foreign  bodies  in  the  air  passages. 

9.  The    invention   of  a   graduated   spring   calipers 
for  the  accurate    measurements   of  the    contractions 
or     dilatations    of    the    chest,   and    determining    its 
changes  from  time  to  time   under   the  influence  of 
disease. 

In  Ireland  the  appearance  of  this  work  was  warmly 
70 


WORK  ON   DISEASES   OF   THE   CHEST 

welcomed  by  the  profession,  among  whom  he  num- 
bered many  true  and  honoured  friends.  It  placed 
the  author  at  once  in  the  front  rank  of  the  pro- 
fession in  Dublin,  as  it  was  felt  that  no  work  that 
had  previously  emanated  from  the  Irish  School  of 
Medicine  had  done  more  to  raise  it  in  the  estima- 
tion of  the  world.  In  England  it  was  received  as 
the  one  work  of  the  time  which  justified  students 
of  Medicine  in  the  hope  that  their  art  was  at  length 
"  really  beginning  to  assume  the  character  of  an 
inductive  science,  and  in  Germany  it  was  declared 
unequalled  since  the  time  of  Laennec."  I 

Of  this  work  Sir  Henry  Acland,  Regius  Professor 
of  Medicine  in  the  University  of  Oxford,  has  written 
in  a  still  more  eulogistic  manner.  He  observed  that 
"the  terseness  of  his  language  and  clearness  of  his 
statements  produced  a  profound  impression  on 
vigorous  and  active  minds  at  the  time.  The  precise 
summaries  at  the  end  of  the  various  chapters,  notably 
that  of  the  physical  signs  of  diseases  of  the  pleura, 

1  In  the  preface  of  the  translation  into  German  of  the  work  the  trans- 
lator, Dr.  Gerhard  Von  dem  Busch  ("  Abhandlung  uber  die  Diagnose  und 
Behandlung  der  Brust-Krankheiten  aus  dem  Englischen  von  Gerhard 
von  dem  Busch."  Bremen,  1838)  observed,  "Since  the  publication  of 
Laennec's  great  work,  which  formed  an  epoch  in  medical  history,  many 
valuable  treatises  have  appeared  in  France  and  England  on  the  same 
subject,  but  none  of  them  can  bear  comparison  with  that  which  has 
lately  emanated  from  the  pen  of  Dr.  William  Stokes." 

71 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

seemed  almost  a  revelation  both  in  statement  of  fact 
and  drawing  of  inference." 

Shortly  after  its  publication  honorary  distinctions 
were  literally  showered  on  Stokes  both  at  home  and 
abroad.  The  degree  of  MJ).  was  conferred  on  him 
— honoris  causa — by  the  University  of  Dublin  ;  he 
was  elected  a  Fellow  of  the  King  and  Queen's 
College  of  Physicians  in  Ireland,  and  an  honorary 
member  of  the  Imperial  Academy  of  Medicine, 
Vienna,  and  of  the  Royal  Medical  Societies  of 
Berlin,  Leipsic,  Edinburgh,  and  Ghent ;  of  the 
Medical  Societies  of  the  Grand  Duchy  of  Baden, 
the  Medico-Chirurgical  Society  of  Hamburg,  and 
the  National  Institute  of  Philadelphia. 


FRIENDSHIPS — LOVE  FOR  Music  AND  THE  DRAMA 
— SHAKESPEARE  READINGS — AIMS  AND  OBJECTS 
OF  ART — PROFESSOR  MAHAFFY — THOMAS  CAR- 
LYLE — FOREIGN  TOURS 

T  N  the  years  of  increased  labour  which  followed 
-*•  the  publication  of  this  work  on  the  chest,  it  is 
easy  to  conceive  how  much  refreshment  and  support 
Stokes  gained  by  intercourse  with  friends  whose  labours 
lay  outside  his  own  field.  On  the  other  hand,  we 
have  already  seen  an  instance  of  how  his  sympathy  in 
their  pursuits  acted  as  a  stimulus  to  them,  while  the 
following  letter  written  to  Petrie  when  he  was  collect- 
ing material  for  his  work  on  the  Round  Towers  of 
Ireland,  will  show  this  sympathy  developing  into 
practical  aid.  It  may  be  well  to  explain  that  on  the 
eve  of  his  departure  for  a  holiday  on  the  Continent 
after  the  publication  of  his  book,  Petrie  had  confided 
to  him  his  belief  that  the  continental  church  towers 

73 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

of  the  Carlovingian  age  were  of  the  same  type  as  those 
of  Ireland,  this  idea  having  first  occurred  to  him  on 
seeing  the  representation  of  a  cylindrical  tower  with 
conical  top  on  the  ancient  seal  of  Aix-la-Chapelle. 

"To  GEORGE  PETRIE,  LL.D. 

"  ANDERMATT  ON  THE  ST.  GOTHARD  PASS, 

"  Friday,  August  16,  1839. 

"Mv  DEAREST  FRIEND, — Here  I  am  with  my 
little  party  storm-bound  on  the  summit  of  this  sublime 
pass  !  If  you  will  look  at  a  map  of  Germany  and 
Switzerland  you  can  trace  our  route  through  the  Low 
Countries  to  Cologne  on  the  Rhine,  up  the  river  to 
Manheim,  then  by  Heidelberg,  Baden,  the  Black 
Forest,  Schaffhausen,  Zurich,  Lucerne,  and  St. 
Gothard.  Through  all  my  wanderings  I  have  ever 
thought  how  you  would  enjoy  these  glorious  scenes, 
but  you  would  make  a  slow  traveller,  for  I  think  it 
would  be  impossible  to  get  you  away  from  some  of 
the  places  that  we  have  visited,  or  driven  past.  I  have 
pictured  you  and  your  dear  family  in  my  mind's  eye, 
luxuriating  in  the  view  of  Cologne  Cathedral  or 
Antwerp,  or  boating  on  the  face  of  the  Lake  of 
Lucerne.  I  hope  the  time  will  come  when  we  may 
go  over  this  ground  together.  .  .  . 

74 


FRIENDSHIPS,  TASTES,   HOME   LIFE 

I  have  not  forgotten  the  Round  Towers.  I 
examined  the  Church  of  Aix-la-Chapelle  with  a 
good  deal  of  care,  and  also  looked  for  such  repre- 
sentations of  it  as  I  could  find  in  the  old  paint- 
ings in  the  Church.  Most  of  the  paintings,  however, 
are  frescoes  of  a  date  much  later  than  the  build- 
ing as  it  stands  at  present ;  even  later  than  the 
choir  which  was  added  to  the  more  ancient  polygonal 
structure.  I  did  not,  however,  see  the  old  shrines  and 
reliquaries,  and  it  is  on  these  that  the  most  reliable 
representation  of  the  original  church  may  be  looked 
for.  At  Cologne,  however,  I  took  great  pains  in 
examining  the  reliquaries.  Here  there  are  two  very 
magnificent  shrines,  one  of  the  three  kings  and  the 
other  of  St.  Engelbert.  They  are  of  gold  and  silver, 
set  with  precious  stones  and  covered  with  chasing  and 
exquisite  filigree  work.  On  the  shrine  of  the  three 
kings  there  are  numerous  representations  of  saints 
holding  in  their  hands  the  churches  they  have  founded 
and  dedicated,  but  I  think  they  are  representations  of 
basilicas  apparently  massive,  irregular,  low  buildings 
covering  a  considerable  extent  of  ground,  and  many 
of  them  presenting  a  circular  apartment  covered  by  a 
low  dome  supported  on  a  low  polygonal  tower.  The 
arches  are  round-headed.  In  none  of  these  reliefs 

75 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

could  I  discover  a  *  Round  Tower.'  On  the  shrine 
of  St.  Engelbert,  however,  I  found  one,  and  only  one. 
It  stands  at  one  of  the  angles  of  a  great  square  tower. 
The  representation  is  modelled  in  high  relief,  and  to 
my  eye  it  seems  like  a  most  perfect  likeness  of  one  of 
the  Irish  Round  Towers.  It  enlarges  slightly  towards 
the  base  and  is  quite  circular.  It  has  the  low  conical 
roof  and  the  windows  towards  the  summit  with  one 
window  at  the  usual  distance  from  the  base.  I  asked 
my  sister-in-law  to  take  a  little  sketch  of  this  tower  of 
which  I  send  you  a  rough  copy. 

"  Now,  as  to  my  next  observation.  In  the  Church 
of  St.  Thomas  at  Strasburg,  I  was  startled  to  see  two 
towers  so  like  the  Irish  towers  that  they  brought  back 
many  of  our  rambles  to  my  memory.  The  Church  is 
evidently  an  old  one.  It  is  quite  in  the  Lombard 
style,  and  I  should  say  the  older  Lombardic.  The 
eastern  apse  is  polygonal,  rising  to  a  vast  height,  sur- 
rounded by  a  gallery  with  a  double  row  of  arches; 
the  lower  are  of  great  size  and  not  open.  The  upper 
small  and  open.  The  two  round  towers  each  face  a 
side  of  the  square  tower-like  apse.  They  are  very 
similar  externally^  but  one  is  about  twice  as  high  as 
the  other.  There  are  no  similar  towers  near  the 
church,  so  that  their  position  with  regard  to  the  apse, 

76 


FRIENDSHIPS,   TASTES,   HOME   LIFE 

produces  an  irregular  and  singular  effect.  The  lowest 
of  these  towers  is  evidently  the  most  ancient  and  my 
reasons  for  this  opinion  are  as  follows  : — 

"  i.  The  higher  tower  contains  a  spiral  staircase  of 
stone,  which  leads  to  the  gallery,  and  it  seems  more 
in  harmony  with  the  rest  of  the  building  both  from 
its  height  and  position,  the  apex  corresponding  to  the 
keystone  of  the  arch,  which  it  nearly  touches.  This 
tower  is  of  brick. 

"  2.  The  lower  tower  just  reaches  above  the  lower 
gallery  of  the  apse.  Its  diameter  is  less  than  that  of 
the  high  tower,  and  a  segment  of  the  tower  has  been 
cut  off  to  make  way  for  the  gallery.  Looking  through 
one  of  the  little  windows  at  this  point,  I  could  see 
dimly  into  the  interior  of  the  tower.  It  has  no  stair- 
case, and  its  foundation  is  lost  in  the  buildings  below. 
The  sacristan  told  me  that  there  was  no  entrance  into 
it  from  below,  that  it  had  been  built  up  altogether.  I 
descended  into  the  vaults,  but  could  find  nothing.  I 
I  believe  the  high  tower  was  built  in  imitation  of  the 
old  one.  This  church  should  be  most  accurately 
examined.  .  .  ." 

The  twelve  years  following  the  appearance  of  his 
work  on  diseases  of  the  chest  were  those  of  deepest 

77  f 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

interest.  It  has  been  more  than  once  observed  by 
William  Stokes,  that  during  the  first  quarter  of  the 
present  century,  the  mind  of  Ireland  was  sunk  in 
apathy  and  dejection,  and  there  was  a  marked  decline 
of  intellectual  vitality.  But  in  the  period  from  1830 
to  1850  a  singular  development  of  intellect  and  energy 
in  almost  every  department  of  mental  culture  showed 
itself.  In  art  and  literature,  Petrie  and  Frederic 
William  Burton,  Samuel  Ferguson,  Thomas  Davis, 
Clarence  Mangan,1  and  Anster  were  doing  good  work, 
while  in  science  the  labours  of  our  leading  men  were 
crowned  by  discovery.  "  Hamilton  furnished  the  most 

1  The  following  account  of  the  tragical  death  of  Clarence  Mangan, 
from  the  pen  of  the  distinguished  authoress,  Miss  Jane  Barlow,  in  a 
letter  to  Miss  Guiney,  who  has  recently  brought  out  an  edition  of 
Mangan's  poems,  will  be  read  with  interest.  She  mentions  with  regard 
to  Dr.  Stokes  that  he  was  in  fact  Mangan's  last  friend.  For  Mangan 
had  been  lost  sight  of  by  everybody  for  a  very  long  time,  when  one 
morning,  as  Stokes  was  going  his  rounds  in  the  Meath  Hospital,  the 
porter  told  him  that  admission  was  asked  for  a  miserable-looking  man  at 
the  door.  He  was  shocked  to  find  that  this  was  Mangan,  who  said  to 
him,  "  You  are  the  first  who  has  spoken  one  kind  word  to  me  for  many 
years" — a  terrible  saying.  Stokes  got  him  a  private  room,  and  had 
everything  possible  done  for  him  ;  but  not  many  days  after  he  died. 
Immediately  after  death,  such  a  wonderful  change  came  over  the  face 
that  Stokes  hurried  away  to  Sir  Frederic  Burton,  the  artist,  and  said  to 
him,  "  Clarence  Mangan  is  lying  dead  at  the  hospital.  I  want  you  to 
come  and  look  at  him,  for  you  never  saw  anything  so  beautiful  in  your 
life  !  "  So  Sir  Frederic  came,  and  made  the  sketch  which  is  now  in  the 
National  Gallery.  And  so,  "  suddenly  and  quietly  as  the  shutting  of  a 
glow-worm's  little  lamp,"  on  the  zoth  of  June,  1849,  h'8  !'&  went  out. 
Only  three  persons  are  said  to  have  followed  his  body  to  the  grave. 

78 


FRIENDSHIPS,  TASTES,   HOME   LIFE 

advanced  instrument  of  investigation,  the  Calculus  of 
Quaternions,  leading  to  paths  hitherto  unexplored," 
while  the  papers  of  McCullagh  on  geometry,  and  on 
physical  optics,  "  are  distinguished,"  says  William 
Stokes,  "  by  his  power  of  giving  to  his  researches  that 
peculiar  symmetry  in  their  results,  which  is  such  an 
element  of  the  beautiful  in  science." 

The  tie  that  bound  William  Stokes  to  these  men 
was  something  more  than  ordinary  friendship.  Un- 
versed as  he  was  in  the  practical  part,  the  technical 
work  of  the  artist,  and  ignorant  of  higher  mathe- 
matics, it  was  yet  wonderful  what  sympathy  and 
support  these  men  derived  from  him,  with  what  ardour 
his  genius  could  reverberate  to  theirs.  In  the  genial 
atmosphere  he  created  around  him,  they  seemed  to 
live  their  fullest  life,  and  those  of  them  who  died 
before  him  died  beneath  his  care. 

The  love  of  poetry  and  art  seemed  to  be  innate 
with  him.  As  a  child  his  chief  delight,  as  already 
stated,  was  in  reading  ballads  from  the  Border  Min- 
strelsy of  Sir  Walter  Scott,  as  he  often  did  when  sitting 
on  the  top  of  a  wall,  near  his  sisters  while  they 
sketched.  They  had  been  carefully  trained  by 
O'Conor  and  George  Petrie,  and  were  landscape 
painters  of  no  mean  skill.  The  pleasure  that  their 

79 


WILLIAM  STOKES 

brother  William  found  in  watching  Nature  in  all  her 
moods  was  no  doubt  fostered  in  him  by  the  example 
of  these  sisters,  who  were  some  years  older  than  he, 
and  both  of  whom  were  distinguished  by  untiring 
industry  and  conscientiousness,  as  well  as  by  the  ex- 
quisite delicacy  of  their  work.  At  the  period  of  which 
we  speak,  George  Petrie  and  Frederic  Burton  were  the 
painters  in  whose  works  William  Stokes,  as  a  lover  both 
of  Nature  and  of  his  country,  took  most  delight.  Each 
of  them,  in  his  own  way,  and  according  to  his  power, 
were  striving  to  do  with  the  pencil  for  Ireland  that 
which  Scott  had  done  for  his  country  with  the  pen — 
to  paint  her  scenery  and  native  character  as  seen 
through  the  medium  of  a  keen  and  appreciative  eye. 
At  this  period  Petrie  had  given  us  such  works  as 
Ardfinnen  Castle,  The  Twelve  Pins  of  Connemara, 
The  Black  Valley,  and  The  Pilgrims  at  Clonmac- 
nois ;  and  Frederic  Burton  was  at  work  on  The 
Blind  Girl  at  the  Holy  Well,  The  Arran  Fisher- 
man's Drowned  Child,  and  The  Connemara  Toilet, 
&C. 

To  William  Stokes,  their  works  were  the  embodi- 
ments of  a  poetry  and  charm  in  the  native  character 
of  Ireland,  which  he  had  felt  and  loved  through  life. 
The  wild  freshness  and  grace,  the  deep  pathetic  tender- 

80 


FRIENDSHIPS,  TASTES,   HOME  LIFE 

ness  which  lies  in  Irish  music,  were  here  translated  into 
dramatic  paintings  by  the  one  ;  while  the  other,  when 
faithfully  representing  the  ancient  monuments  of 
Ireland,  strove  "  to  connect  with  them  the  expression 
of  human  feelings  equally  belonging  to  our  history." 
The  landscape  painting  of  Petrie  was  described  by 
William  Stokes  as  bearing  a  striking  resemblance  to 
the  poetry  of  Wordsworth.  "In  both  the  painter 
and  the  poet,"  he  says,  "  we  find  the  same  perception 
of  the  beautiful,  the  same  dwelling  on  scenes  of 
simple  nature,  the  same  use  of  natural  objects  as 
means  to  an  end,  that  end  being  the  elevation  of  the 
heart,  and  the  training  of  the  mind  to  thoughts  of 
purity  and  love." 

One  influence  was  added  which  more  perhaps  than 
any  other  at  this  time  helped  to  develop  in  him  that 
love  for  poetry,  and  especially  dramatic  poetry,  which 
had  been  a  passion  with  him  from  boyhood.  It  was 
now  that  Helen  Faucit *  came  to  Ireland,  bearing 
with  her  letters  of  introduction  from  Sir  Archibald 
Alison,  the  brother  of  Professor  Alison,  of  Edinburgh, 
Stokes'  teacher  and  warm  friend.  She  at  once  found 
herself,  as  it  were,  in  her  natural  atmosphere  when 

1  Now  Lady  Martin,  authoress  of  "  Some  of  Shakespeare's  Female 
Characters."  William  Blackwood  and  Sons,  1885. 

81 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

she  entered  the  home-like  circle  that  had  risen  round 
the  hearth  at  Merrion  Square,  while  all  her  genius 
warmed  and  expanded  among  those  who  grew  to 
love  her  there.  William  Stokes  at  once  recognised 
in  her  the  true  painter  of  that  human  nature,  of 
which  he  had  so  profound  a  knowledge,  and  he  saw 
in  her  impersonations  the  noblest  realisation  of  woman 
as  he  had  always  conceived  her — "Woman  the  de- 
pository of  all  that  is  pure,  and  delicate,  and  moral 
in  this  life."  That  his  respect  was  fully  esteemed  by 
her  who  was  its  object,  may  be  seen  by  the  following 
letter  written  after  his  death  : — 

"  BRYNTISILIO,  LLANGOLLEN,  1880. 
"  I  wish  I  could  express  in  words  what  I  owed 
to  your  dear  father.  When  first  I  knew  him,  I  was 
young  in  my  art  and  in  years — knew  little  of  life  and 
that  little  often  sad  and  discouraging — entirely  dis- 
trustful of  myself,  often  wondering  how  I  found  the 
courage,  when  all  was  so  weary,  as  to  persevere.  He 
first  felt  with  me,  seemed  to  guess  how  my  heart 
asked  for  sympathy,  and  without  my  telling  of  a 
trouble,  he  gave  me  bounteously  the  sweet  rain  of 
encouragement,  for  want  of  which  my  heart  felt  dried 
up  and  withering. 

82 


FRIENDSHIPS,   TASTES,   HOME    LIFE 

"  His  taste  was  so  fine,  his  judgment  so  deep,  his 
sympathy  so  large,  and  yet  so  fond  and  tender  in 
all  things.  Such  a  character  was  a  revelation  to 
me. 

"I  seemed  to  have  been  fumbling  in  the  dark 
before.  I  knew  well  what  I  wanted,  but  did  not 
know  how  to  reach  it.  He  revealed  to  me  myself — 
at  least,  he  discovered  what  I  was  feeling  and  wanting 
to  bring  forth  in  my  art.  He  showed  it  to  me,  and 
by  a  word  I  felt  that  as  it  were  revealed.  I  had  had 
a  light  thrown  in  my  way — a  torch  to  encourage  and 
guide  me  upward. 

"  He  gave  me  credit  for  such  good  inspirations  that 
I  felt  my  courage  grow  and  expand  towards  them. 
Shall  I  ever  forget  seeing  him  and  your  dear  mother 
and  their  children  in  the  same  place,  night  after  night, 
of  *  Antigone '  and,  indeed,  of  almost  all  my  charac- 
ters. He  thought  I  had  intuitions  about  things, 
natural  instincts.  Do  you  remember,  in  the  madness  of 
Belvidera  and  Isabella,  the  difference  which  he  noticed 
that  I  made  in  each — how  right  he  said  it  was,  men- 
tally and  physically,  the  suddenness  of  the  one,  the 
slow  going  and  coming  of  the  reason  in  the  other — 
how  it  tottered  before  it  gave  way.  How  I  wish  now 
I  could  have  given  him  my  notion  of  Ophelia's  mad- 

83 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

ness.     But,   then,  there  never  was  an  actor  that  he 
could  have  borne  in  '  Hamlet ' ! 

"  How  keen  his  sensibility  was !  It  seemed  to 
hurt  him  to  see  a  Shakesperian  part  wrongly  felt.  I 
never  asked  his  advice.  He  was  so  modest  he 
would  have  said  he  knew  nothing  about  it,  and 
yet,  by  the  way,  I  could  turn  the  talk,  and  by  a 
casual  word  I  could  fish  up  what  I  wanted  from 
him." 

We  have  shown  what  an  ardent  lover  of  Shake- 
speare Stokes  had  been  all  through  his  life,  and  in 
his  later  years  he  took  great  interest  in  Shakespeare 
readings  inaugurated  by  the  Rev.  Robert  Perceval 
Graves,  of  Dublin,  the  meetings  being  held  in  turn 
at  the  respective  houses  of  the  members  of  a  little 
Shakespeare  Society.  Among  the  readers  may  be 
mentioned  Dr.  Ingram,  Professor  Mahaffy,  Sir  Samuel 
and  Lady  Ferguson,  Professor  Dowden,  Dr.  Salmon, 
Lord  O'Hagan,  and  others.  It  was  most  interesting 
to  note  the  different  way  in  which  these  readers  (all 
men  possessed  of  much  literary  ability,  and  actuated 
by  the  deepest  reverence  of  the  poet)  interpreted 
his  thoughts  and  discussed  his  meanings,  while  some 
of  the  readers,  such  as  Stokes  himself,  when  he  took 

84 


FRIENDSHIPS,  TASTES,   HOME  LIFE 

such  a  part  as  that  of  Caliban  in  the  "Tempest," 
showed  no  little  dramatic  power. 

In  connection  with  the  aims  and  objects  of  art 
the  following  remarks,  taken  from  a  letter  of  William 
Stokes,  will  be  read  with  interest  : — 

"  It  has  been  said  that  the  real  end  and  object  of 
art  is  to  deliver  in  its  varied  language  the  light- 
imparting  message  of  God  to  man,  and  for  this 
purpose  to  avail  itself  of  every  human  feeling,  sym- 
pathy, and  perfection,  physical  as  well  as  moral.  And 
it  is  plain  that  whosoever  establishes  a  single  new 
means  to  so  great  an  end  and  adds  it  to  the  bright 
apparatus  of  the  past,  the  painter,  the  sculptor,  the 
architect,  actor,  and  musician,  must  claim  a  high 
place  in  the  world's  esteem. 

"  In  the  pursuit  of  art,  we  would  avoid  getting 
into  that  condition  which  has  been  suitably  termed 
*  mental  luxury';  one  which  generates  selfishness, 
on  the  one  hand,  and  indolence  on  the  other — a 
condition  in  which  we  become  recipients,  but  not 
artificers,  and  in  the  dreamy,  idle  contemplation  of 
the  beautiful  become  the  slaves  of  a  refined  sensualism. 
There  is  too  much  of  this  tendency  at  the  present 
time  ;  and  the  facility  with  which  great  works  of  art 
can  be  seen  and  studied,  or  exquisite  engravings, 

85 


possessing  much  of  the  beauty  of  the  originals  be 
obtained,  assist  in  this  indulgence  in  the  sentimentalism 
of  art  a  feeling  most  unwholesome  and  hostile  to 
true  progress.  We  are  not  to  worship  art,  but  to 
use  it  as  a  means  to  some  great  end.  All  things 
speak  of  God  ;  His  revelations  are  infinite,  but  our 
means  of  receiving  them  are  not  unlimited.  We  are 
given  intellect,  feeling,  sympathy,  and  sense,  as  the 
avenues  by  which  we  may  receive  the  truth,  and 
there  is  no  man  in  which  some  of  these  channels  may 
not  be  opened  so  as  to  imbibe  that  he  may  afterwards 
emit  the  light.  The  intellect  is  addressed  by  reason 
supported  by  education.  But  art  teaches  by  other 
methods — in  unwritten  tongues,  in  varied  languages  ; 
it  preaches  truth  through  beauty,  and  tells  of  the  God 
of  love,  of  beauty,  strength,  and  power.  It  does  not 
teach  by  dogma,  nor  by  an  array  of  evidence  ;  nor 
does  it  convince  by  terror,  nor  is  its  indirect  influence 
less  important  when  it  acts  less  by  teaching  than  by 
inducing  us  to  learn  ;  by  shedding  around  and  within 
us  the  pure  effluences  of  beauty  and  of  truth,  so  that 
the  darkness  and  the  hardness  of  our  nature  and  the 
evils  of  our  position,  for  the  hour  at  least,  disappear. 
Our  load  of  evil  is  lightened  and  our  minds  and 
natures  more  easily  pursue  a  heavenward  path — 

86 


FRIENDSHIPS,   TASTES,   HOME   LIFE 

" '  As  plants  in  mines  that  never  saw  the  sun, 
But  upward  climb,  and  strive  to  get  to  him.'" 

"  When  I  first  came  to  know  William  Stokes  in 
1858,"  writes  Professor  MahafFy, 1  one  of  William 
Stokes'  most  esteemed  friends,  "  his  house  had  been 
for  years  the  resort  of  all  the  wit  and  all  the  learning 
which  Ireland  possessed.  His  fame  brought  all  foreign 
visitors  of  literary  note  with  introductions  to  see  him . 
He  kept  open  house,  and  in  addition  to  his  large 
family,  some  learned  foreigner  or  some  stray  country 
wit  could  be  met  with  almost  daily  at  his  simple  but 
most  hospitable  table." 

His  house  gradually  formed  a  nucleus  for  the  intel- 
lectual and  musical  society  of  Dublin  ;  and  foreigners, 
whether  professional  men  or  artists,  were  made 
especially  welcome.  On  Christmas  Day  especially 
he  desired  that  foreigners  should  be  invited  to  join 
his  circle  at  dinner  who  would  otherwise  have  felt 
their  exile  from  home  at  this  especial  season.  On 
one  such  occasion  several  different  nationalities  were 
represented  at  his  board. 

The  Saturday  evenings  were  generally  given  to 
music  and  conversation,  and  on  gala  nights,  and  at 

1  "  Dr.  William  Stokes  ;  A  Personal  Sketch,"  by  Rev.  J.  P.  Mahaffy, 
D.D.,  Macmillan'i  Magazine,  February,  1878. 

87 


WILLIAM  STOKES 

his  children's  festivals,  he  would  preside  at  puppet- 
shows,  and  act  charades  and  throw  himself  heart  and 
soul  into  this  as  into  any  other  pursuit  in  life. 

"  This  period,"  writes  his  sister,  "  was  perhaps  his 
happiest  ;  he  had  youth,  enthusiasm,  love,  children, 
and  was  surrounded  by  troops  of  warm  and  sym- 
pathetic friends,  among  whom  were  Dr.  Gregory,  of 
Edinburgh  ;  Major  Patrickson  and  Barton,  old  Penin- 
sular officers  ;  George  Petrie  and  Col.  Pratt,  artists  ; 
William  Archer  Butler,  Drs.  Porter  and  Barker, 
Graves,  Apjohn,  Wilde,  Caesar,  and  J.  Hastings  Otway, 
and  many  others." 

Had  it  not  been  for  the  good  effects  of  such  social 
life  and  the  complete  rest  and  relaxation  that  he  thus 
obtained,  he  never  could  have  borne  the  fatigue  of  his 
enormous  work  for  so  many  years.  But  the  benefit 
of  such  influences  was  not  merely  personal.  The 
revival  from  the  condition  of  intellectual  torpor  that 
had  prevailed  in  society  in  Dublin  for  a  quarter  of 
a  century  was  materially  aided  by  these  brilliant  and 
easy  reunions,  where  an  imaginative  genius  and  his 
wife's  kindly  grace  shed  their  influences  over  all 
assembled  at  his  house. 

Professor  Mahaffy  has  said  of  the  young  friends 
whom  Stokes  loved  to  see  about  him,  that  "  many 

88 


FRIENDSHIPS,   TASTES,   HOME   LIFE 

of  them  date  their  first  inspiration  for  work  and 
disgust  for  idleness  to  the  influence  of  his  refined 
and  literary  home.  There  are  those,  too,  who  have 
confessed  that  his  spirit  turned  them  from  the  vices 
and  follies  of  youth,  and  led  them  to  a  serious  and 
honourable  view  of  their  duties  amid  the  temptations 
of  a  college  career.  And  yet  he  never  preached 
sermons,  or  gave  any  formal  moral  advice.  He  was 
far  too  subtle  and  original  a  teacher  to  follow  so 
well-beaten  and  idle  a  track.  Nor  was  this  stimu- 
lating influence  confined  to  the  young.  On  the 
topics  which  he  touched  he  made  all  those  around 
him  rise  above  themselves  and  do  greater  and  better 
work.  Thus  the  remarkable  researches  of  George 
Petrie,  both  on  the  antiquities  and  music  of  Ireland, 
would  never  have  seen  the  light  but  for  the  constant 
pressure  and  encouragement  of  William  Stokes,  who, 
though  he  was  neither  a  musician  nor  an  artist,  felt 
the  beauty  of  artistic  work  with  a  keenness  and  a 
tenderness  beyond  the  depth  of  ordinary  men.  In 
this  way  he  was  a  great  schoolmaster  to  all  those  about 
him — a  man  who  might  have  been  a  great  scholastic 
head,  just  as  his  powers  of  observation  might  have 
made  him  one  of  the  first  naturalists  of  the  time."  I 

1  Macmillan's  Magazine,  p.  301,  February,  1878. 
8q 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

In  this  year  (1849)  Thomas  Carlyle  visited  Ireland 
and  brought  an  introduction  to  Stokes  who  hospitably 
received  him,  and  invited  several  literary  friends,  in- 
cluding Drs.  Todd,  Petrie,  Frederic  Burton,  and 
others,  to  meet  him  at  dinner.  The  impression  that 
Carlyle  made  on  Stokes  was  the  reverse  of  favourable. 
His  self-assertiveness,  intolerance  of  any  opposition  to 
his  views,  vanity,  and  unconcealed  contempt  for 
everything  and  every  one  in  the  country  in  which  he 
was  an  honoured  guest,  struck  Stokes  as  being  as  ill- 
mannered  as  it  was  low-bred.  He  used  to  say  that  he 
had  during  his  life-time  met  many  men  who  were  in 
every  sense  of  the  word  bores,  but  that  "  Carlyle  was 
hyperborean " !  It  is  not  surprising  therefore,  that 
Stokes,  whom  Carlyle  described  as  being  a  "rather 
fierce,  sinister  looking  man,"  became  as  the  evening 
wore  on,  "  more  and  more  gloomy,  emphatic,  and 
contradictory,"  and  we  can  well  believe  that  after 
II  o'clock  p.m.  Carlyle  was  "glad  to  get  away."1 

As  a  conversationalist  Stokes  was  matchless,  though 
perhaps,  in  the  presence  of  any  one  who  was  prim  and 
matter-of-fact,  he  took  somewhat  too  keen  a  pleasure 
in  astonishing  and  mystifying  him  by  some  extravagant 

1  "  Reminiscences  of  my  Irish  Journey  in  1849,"  ty  Thomas  Carlyle, 
1882,  p.  50. 

90 


FRIENDSHIPS,   TASTES,   HOME    LIFE 

paradox,  which  he  would  support  by  the  most  subtle 
and  ingenious  arguments.  As  a  storyteller  also  he 
was  unrivalled  ;  the  pungency  of  his  wit,  his  innate 
poetic  instinct,  and  deep  feeling,  all  combining  to 
render  his  descriptions,  whether  of  tragic  or  comic 
incidents  in  his  own  life  or  that  of  others,  examples  of 
word-painting  such  as  are  seldom  met  with.  As  an 
illustration  of  his  readiness  and  wit,  it  may  be  men- 
tioned that  on  one  occasion  he  was  called  on  to  give 
evidence  in  a  case  involving  the  interests  of  one  of 
his  patients.  There  had  previously  been  many  com- 
plaints made  as  to  the  insanitary  condition  of  the 
court,  especially  in  reference  to  alleged  defective 
ventilation.  After  Stokes  had  given  his  evidence,  the 
judge,  with  very  questionable  taste  observed:  "Dr. 
Stokes,  before  you  leave  the  court,  I  should  be  greatly 
obliged  if  you  would  give  an  opinion  as  to  whether  you 
think  the  ventilation  of  this  court  is  likely  to  prove 
injurious  to  the  health  of  those  who  are  compelled  to 
remain  here  for  many  hours  every  day  ?  "  "  I  think, 
my  lord,"  replied  Stokes,  "  that  the  best  way  to  answer 
your  question  would  be  to  suggest  this  motto  for 
your  court,  '  Fiat  Justicia  ruat  caelum  ! '  But 
whatever  topic  •  was  the  subject  of  conversation 
either  in  his  home  circle  or  elsewhere,  one  thing  he 

91 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

did  instinctively,  he  strove  to  raise  its  tone  to  a  high 
level,  and  without  appearing  to  aim  at  this,  he  made 
others  about  him  endeavour  to  do  likewise.  This  was 
one  of  the  secrets  of  his  success  as  a  great  clinical 
teacher,  and  one  which  so  often  had  the  happy  result 
of  kindling  the  sacred  fire  of  enthusiasm,  "  the  genius 
of  sincerity  "  in  his  pupils. 

Among  his  home  recreations,  there  was  none  that 
afforded  him  keener  delight  than  music,  in  which 
several  members  of  his  family  possessed  both  aptitude 
and  technical  skill.  He  was  not  himself  a  musician, 
but  had  an  instinctive  power  of  knowing  and  appreciat- 
ing what  was  good  in  music.  What  appeared  to  afford 
him  the  greatest  pleasure  were  the  simple  national 
melodies  of  his  own  and  other  countries.  His  taste 
for  the  former  was  largely  fostered  by  his  lifelong 
friend  George  Petrie,  who,  in  addition  to  many  other 
artistic  accomplishments,  possessed  a  sound  theoretical 
as  well  as  practical  knowledge  of  music.  Petrie  was 
an  industrious  collector  of  Irish  national  melodies, 
many  of  which  have  been  skilfully  arranged  both  by 
the  late  Frank  Hoffmann  and  Professor  Villiers 
Stanford.  But  William  Stokes'  musical  taste  was 
not  confined  to  the  national  music  of  his  own  country. 
That  of  other  countries  gave  him  almost  as  great  a 

92 


FRIENDSHIPS,  TASTES,   HOME   LIFE 

pleasure,  particularly,  I  should  say,  that  of  Italy  and 
Hungary.  The  writer  has  a  vivid  recollection  of  a 
musical  experience  he  had  many  years  ago,  when 
travelling  in  the  Austrian  Tyrol  with  his  father. 
They  halted  one  evening  at  a  village  not  far  from 
Ischl,  and  after  dinner  a  band  of  Bohemian  Gypsies 
commenced  to  play  their  national  melodies  outside 
the  inn.  Stokes'  delight  knew  no  bounds.  He 
rushed  out,  sat  down  among  the  musicians,  gave  a 
liberal  order  for  refreshments  for  the  band,  with  the 
happy  result  that  the  concert  was  protracted  far  into 
the  night  ! 

But  his  taste  was  not  confined  to  this  simple,  and 
what  might  be  termed  elementary  music,  for  though 
he  never  would  have  appreciated  the  modern  German 
School  of  Wagner  and  his  followers,  the  works  of 
Handel,  Mozart,  Weber,  and  Gluck,  as  well  as  those 
of  many  composers  of  the  early  Italian  school,  such  as 
Pergolese,  Stradella,  Marcello,  &c.,  were  sources  of 
never  failing  delight  to  him. 

With  such  tastes,  such  exceptional  powers  of  accu- 
rate observation,  such  a  love  for  what  is  beautiful  in 
Nature  and  in  Art,  such  a  power  of  seeing,  even  in 
objects  that  to  most  people  would  be  insignificant, 
something  worthy  of  observation  and  note,  it  can  be 

93  ° 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

readily  understood  what  a  delightful  and  interesting 
travelling  companion  he  was.  The  writer  had  excep- 
tional opportunities  of  observing  these  rare  and  excep- 
tional qualities,  having  on  several  occasions  been  his 
companion  in  tours  through  the  Western  Highlands  of 
Ireland  and  Scotland,  in  Germany,  Austria,  Bavaria, 
France,  and  Spain,  and  of  these  Spain  appeared  to 
afford  him  the  greatest  pleasure  and  interest.  Its 
romantic  literature,  and  eventful  history  ;  its  splendid 
cathedrals,  palaces,  and  fortresses  ;  the  art  productions 
of  Velasquez,  Murillo,  and  Ribera  ;  the  examples  of 
the  severest  as  well  as  the  most  florid  types  of  Gothic 
architecture ;  the  picturesque  costumes  of  the  peasantry 
and  their  simple  and  primitive  modes  of  life  ;  the 
remains  of  the  Roman,  Gothic,  and  Moorish  occupa- 
tions of  the  country — all  combined -to  give  him  the 
keenest  pleasure,  and  furnish  him  in  his  latter  days 
with  some  of  the  happiest  reminiscences  of  his  life. 
In  places  remote  from  art  collections,  his  practical 
knowledge  of  geology,  mineralogy,  and  botany, 
enabled  him  always  to  find  objects  of  interest,  which 
the  unobservant  traveller  would  undoubtedly  pass  by, 
unnoticed  and  uncared  for. 

But  it  must  not  be  supposed  that  he  did  not  take 
an  equal,  perhaps  in  some  respects  a  greater,  delight 

94 


TOUR   IN   GERMANY 

in  the  scenery  and  historic  structures,  ecclesiastical  as 
well  as  military,  of  his  own  country  and  of  Scotland. 
The  writer  has  often  heard  him  say  that  he  felt 
greater  pleasure  in  a  rushing  highland  torrent,  amid 
the  purple  coloured  hills  and  richly  wooded  valleys  of 
his  own  country,  than  among  the  most  awe-inspiring 
passes,  and  stupendous  mountain  heights,  that  arc  to 
be  found  in  the  Alps  or  Pyrenees. 

From  the  following  a  fair  estimate  may  be  made  of 
his  power  of  description — 

"September  17,  1840.  Between  Coblentz  and Mayence 
—  We  saw  a  beautiful,  or  rather  a  singular,  scene 
yesterday  evening  at  about  five  o'clock.  We  had 
started  from  Cologne  at  four,  and  were  going  up  the 
Rhine,  when  a  thunder  storm  came  on.  The  whole 
sky  became  a  black  or  purple  colour  with  vivid  flashes 
of  lightning.  The  wind  and  rain  were  so  impetuous 
that  we  were  all  driven  below.  When  at  last  it 
began  to  clear,  the  sun  broke  out  in  the  west,  while 
everywhere  else  was  as  black  as  midnight.  All  the 
nearer  objects  had  a  bright  yellow  glare  thrown  on 
them  like  that  from  a  great  fire,  contrasting  singularly 
with  the  black  canopy  above  us.  A  perfect  rainbow 
of  the  most  beautiful  colours  suddenly  spanned  the 
Rhine,  and  seemed  to  rise  to  an  extraordinary  height 
95 


WILLIAM  STOKES 

in  the  heavens.  This  was  succeeded  by  another  and 
by  a  third.  So  that  we  had  a  triple  rainbow  of  the 
most  surpassing  beauty,  and  between  each  arch  a  mass 
of  iris  colours  that  seemed  to  have  lost  their  way, 
erring  spirits  that  had  no  guide.  By  and  by  the 
black  curtain  rose  more  and  more  from  the  west,  and 
curling  upwards  with  round  masses  like  drapery  dis- 
closed the  brilliant  sunset.  The  sunnier  Tyrol  had  a 
clearness  like  diamond,  and  the  trees  and  flowers  all 
the  richness  of  colouring  and  distinctness  of  outline 
we  wonder  at  in  Both's  landscapes.  The  clouds  after 
forming  masses  hanging  in  the  clear  aether,  like 
pendants  in  a  Gothic  cathedral,  gradually  rolled  away. 
The  sun  sank  gilding  the  Drachenfels,  and  night 
rapidly  set  in." 

"  September  23,  1840. — At  night  we  started  from 
Munich  for  Salzburg,  which  we  reached  yesterday 
evening,  after  a  drive  of  the  most  surpassing  beauty. 
You  may  ask  how  we  could  enjoy  scenery  when  we 
travelled  by  night — but  as  you  must  know  Munich 
is  situated  in  a  vast  plain,  and  we  managed  our  time 
so  that  the  rising  sun  should  see  us  just  entering  the 
great  chain  of  the  Tyrolean  Alps.  And  so  it  did. 
We  were  travelling  towards  the  East  with  the  chain 
of  mountains  to  our  right  hand.  A  vast  sea  of  mist 

96 


THE   TYROL 

hung  on  the  sides  of  the  mountains,  and  in  the  valley, 
and  as  the  sun  rose  it  began  to  rise  in  folds  like 
curtains  tinged  with  rainbow  colours,  and  disclosed 
the  mountains  successively,  each  new  one  a  little 
higher  than  the  preceding.  Such  a  morning  and 
such  a  view  I  never  saw,  for  when  the  whole  curtain 
was  drawn  we  beheld  the  whole  range  of  the  Salzburg 
Alps,  at  least  one  hundred  miles  long,  gilded  and 
glittering  in  the  morning  sun,  and  springing  out  of  a 
plain  with  every  variety  of  woodland  scenery. 

"  The  road  runs  along  the  line  of  mountains  till  it 
reaches  the  beautiful  lake  of  Chiemsee.  It  is  of  great 
extent.  Its  shores  are  flat  on  one  side,  but  on  the 
other  are  bounded  by  the  chain  of  the  Tyrolean  Alps 
which  for  at  least  fifty  miles  are  reflected  on  its  glassy 
surface.  The  day  was  bright  and  perfectly  calm. 
The  scene  reminded  me  of  Lucerne,  but  the  view 
from  the  water  is  much  more  extended  here,  and  the 
outlines  of  the  mountains  are  much  more  beautiful. 
At  Lucerne  one  feels  confined,  but  here  there  is 
nothing  to  desire.  The  weather  is  lovely,  and  we 
make  a  very  merry  party.  I  have  walked  a  great 
deal. 

"  We  went  into  a  little  burial-ground  to-day,  and 
saw  a  grave  freshly  strewed  with  roses  and  dahlias. 

97 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

On  looking  at  the  tombstone  we  found  that  the 
occupant  of  that  narrow  house  had  died  on  this  day 
eighteen  years.  Is  it  not  a  comfort  to  see  such  things 
as  this  ? " 


VI 


POLITICAL  VIEWS  —  CATHOLIC  EMANCIPATION  — 
O'CoNNELL — " YOUNG  IRELAND"  PARTY — THE 
GREAT  FAMINE — TYPHUS  FEVER  EPIDEMIC 
— MEDICAL  CHARITIES  BILL 

ON  the  death  of  his   father,  in   the   year  1845, 
Stokes  was  confirmed  in  the  place  he  had  held 
as  locum  tenens  for  two   years  as  Regius  Professor  of 
Medicine  in  the  University  of  Dublin,  a  post  which 
he  occupied  up  to  the  time  of  his  death. 

At  no  period  of  his  career  did  he  take  any  active 
or  public  part  in  the  political  movements  of  his 
time.  His  tastes  and  aptitudes  being  essentially  scien- 
tific and  literary,  he  neither  sought  nor  desired  to  be 
identified  with  any  of  the  great  political  questions  con- 
nected with  Ireland  that  so  largely  exercised  the  public 
mind  during  his  life.  Not  that  he  was  indifferent  to 
them ;  his  love  for  the  country  was  too  genuine  a  one 
for  him  to  be  so.  "  To  me,"  he  observed,  "  the  real 
patriot  is  he  who,  in  a  life  of  labour  and  of  trial,  with 

99 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

integrity,  practical  wisdom,  and  far-seeing  intelligence, 
labours  onward  to  no  other  end  but  that  his  country 
shall  rise,  and  with  the  honourable  and  justifiable  am- 
bition that,  loving  her,  he  may  rise  with  her  also." 

He  felt  keenly  what  he  believed  were  calamitous 
acts  of  statesmanship  during  his  time  in  the  Govern- 
ment of  Ireland.  Among  these  was  the  Act  for 
the  Disestablishment  and  Disendowment  of  the 
Irish  Church.  He  believed  that  this  would  be 
followed  by  results  the  very  opposite  of  those  that 
were  anticipated,  or  said  to  be  anticipated,  by  the 
English  statesmen  then  in  power,  and  that  it  was  only 
another  example  of  the  old  and  discredited  policy  of 
confiscation,  as  carried  out  previously,  in  the  .Govern- 
ments of  Queen  Elizabeth,  of  Cromwell,  of  James  II., 
and  William  III.,  and  which  had  always  been  attended 
with  complete  and  disastrous  failure.  He  held 
strongly  the  opinion  that  the  best  interests  not  alone 
of  the  Church  but  more  particularly  of  the  country 
would  be  grievously  injured  by  it.  The  verdict  of 
history  in  endorsing  or  disproving  this  opinion  has  yet 
to  be  given. 

Like  his  father  before  him,  he  had  sympathised 
with  the  movement  for  Catholic  emancipation,  which 
was  at  last  granted  in  the  year  1829.  During  the 
100 


POLITICAL   VIEWS 

agitation  that  preceded  this  event  the  warm  interest 
that  Stokes  felt  in  the  efforts  of  its  promoters  may  be 
seen  in  the  following  passage  taken  from  a  letter  to 
his  wife,  written  three  months  before  the  passing  of 
the  Bill  :— 

"January  15,  1829. — The  peoples'  minds  here 
are  in  a  great  state  of  political  excitement  about  the 
Catholic  question.  The  Catholics  appear  determined 
to  obtain  their  rights  and  how  the  matter  may  termi- 
nate it  would  be  difficult  to  say.  How  blind,  how 
infatuated  must  those  men  be  who  persist  in  refusing 
them  their  just  rights  !  The  sword  may  quell  them 
again  and  again,  the  gibbets  may  be  loaded  and  the 
scaffolds  stream  with  blood,  thousands  may  be  sacri- 
ficed, but  the  voice  of  millions  must  be  heard  at  last. 
Oh  !  that  those  in  power  would  recollect  that  the 
system  of  the  sword  has  now  been  tried  for  many 
hundred  years  and  has  produced  nothing  but  strife  and 
misery  and  heart  burning.  Oh  !  that  we  could  all 
unite  in  striving  for  civil  and  religious  liberty  that  this 
fair  and  lovely  land,  for  which  God  has  done  so  much 
and  man  so  little,  might  put  forth  its  smothered 
energies  which  now  burst  forth  only  to  ruin  and 
destroy." 

In  the  subsequent  struggles  of  O'Connell  to  pro- 
101 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

mote  Repeal  of  the  Union,1  Stokes  only  saw  much  to 
deplore.  When  the  Association  formed  to  promote 
this  cause  was  put  down  by  the  Government  in  1830 
the  agitation  in  Dublin  was  extreme.  In  the  letters 
written  by  Stokes  at  this  period  we  are  reminded,  how- 
ever, of  the  remarks  of  Mr.  Aubrey  de  Vere,  at  p. 
227  of  his  Recollections,  alluding  to  the  extraordinary 
elasticity  that  then  as  at  other  times  seemed  to  save  the 
people  from  utter  prostration,  "  There  was  a  perpetual 
excitement "  ;  he  writes,  "  the  alternation  of  the 
tragic  and  the  comic  remained  j  the  changeful 
humours  held  their  own."  So  it  was  also  as  Stokes 
describes  it  in  1831. 

"January  20,  1831. — Yesterday  O'Connell  and 
most  of  the  agitators  were  apprehended  and  held  to 
bail  to  stand  their  trial  at  the  next  term.  This  pro- 

1  Many  anecdotes  connected  with  the  Act  of  the  Union  Stokes  heard 
in  his  youth.  Of  these  the  writer  recollects  hearing  one  which  struck 
him  as  being  very  characteristic  of  the  time. 

Among  those  who  voted  for  the  Union  and  who  with  some  eighteen 
others  were  rewarded  by  Peerages  or  otherwise,  were  Lords  Clare  and 
Clonmell.  A  county  member  who  also  voted  on  the  same  side,  finding 
he  was  unnoticed,  waited  on  the  Secretary  of  State,  and  in  an  injured 
tone  complained  of  neglect.  The  Secretary  answered  in  the  blandest 
manner  :  "  The  Government,  Sir,  are  most  anxious  to  do  all  it  can  to 
assist  those  who  supported  it.  What  is  the  object  of  your  ambition  ?  " 
"  Make  me  aqual  to  the  rest  of  the  blaguards,"  was  the  prompt  reply 
of  this  conscientious  legislator.  History  does  not  tell  if  his  reasonable 
request  was  granted. 

IO2 


O'CONNELL 

ceeding  has  caused  a  great  excitement  here.  I  was  in 
Dame  Street  when  O'Connell  emerged  from  the 
Police  Office  and  addressed  the  people  from  a  drawing- 
room  window.  He  spoke  of  the  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce who  have  united  against  him,  and  said  he  had 
marked  them  all  and  that  the  mob  should  have  their 
names.  c  What  do  they  want  ?  '  he  exclaimed. 
*  They  want  to  see  blood  flowing  in  the  streets  and 
you  butchered  by  the  soldiery.'  Soon  after  this  the 
mob  gave  three  yells  for  repeal  of  the  Union  and  then 
separated.  .  .  .  All  the  moderate  people  in  Ireland  are 
now  united  against  O'Connell  and  he  will  soon  be  put 
down." 

"February  I,  1831. — Dublin  is  now  very  quiet. 
O'Connell  was  to  have  gone  to  London  yesterday, 
thinking  he  had  succeeded  in  having  his  trial  post- 
poned, and  accordingly  all  '  the  Trades '  turned  out  to 
escort  him  to  Kingstown,  every  man  carrying  some 
banner.  There  were  many  thousands,  but  no  disturb- 
ance resulted.  However,  just  as  he  was  leaving  town  he 
got  a  notice  from  the  Court  that  his  final  trial  was  fixed 
for  Thursday  next,  so,  like  the  King  of  France,  who 
marched  up  the  hill  with  30,000  men  and  then  marched 
down  again,  he  went  to  Kingstown  with  his  escort 
and  then  came  back  again.  The  medical  students 
103 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

have  taken  up  the  question  here  and  are  divided  into 
two  very  furious  parties.  As  Dr.  Jacob  was  about  to 
commence  his  lecture  the  other  day  he  found  a  placard 
on  the  Repeal  lying  on  his  table  ;  he  took  no  notice 
of  it  but  the  class  began  to  make  a  great  disturbance, 
clapping  and  shouting,  &c.,  so  he  took  up  the  placard 
and  carried  it  coolly  to  the  other  end  of  the  table 
where  he  placed  it  beneath  a  large  skull.  Tranquillity 
was  then  restored  until  the  end  of  the  lecture  when 
the  confusion  recommenced.  He  held  up  his  hand  to 
obtain  silence,  then  with  his  peculiar  tone  and  gesture 
said,  '  God  help  you  all,'  and  left  the  room  !  " 

"June  27,  1833. — There  is  a  bawling  fellow  under 
the  window  just  now  crying,  c  Counsellor  O'Connell's 
most  important  letter  to  the  People  of  Ireland  to 
terrify  them  to  have  the  Parliament  in  Ireland,  for  the 
small  charge  of  one  halfpenny.'  This  is  a  most 
comical  country  !  " 

After  O'Connell's  death,  he  felt  that  when  the 
powerful  restraint  exercised  on  the  people  of  Ireland 
by  the  great  Tribune  was  withdrawn,  the  result  would 
be  a  development  of  political  agitation  which  would 
have  unfortunate  and  probably  disastrous  consequences. 
What  happened  afterwards  fully  justified  these  gloomy 
anticipations,  and  in  each  agitation  commencing  with 

104 


YOUNG  IRELAND 

the  "  Young  Ireland  "  one  in  1 848,  an  insurrectionary 
movement  so  unhappy  in  its  result,  and  ending  with 
the  "  Fenian  "  disturbance  of  1867,  and  the  outrages 
of  the  "Invincibles"  later  on,  he  saw  what  he  believed 
were  nothing  but  proofs  of  a  steadily  increasing  national 
demoralisation  and  degradation  from  which  it  would 
take  years  to  recover.  Happily  he  was  spared  seeing 
these  well-founded  anticipations  realised  in  the  tragical 
events — the  boycotting,  assassinations,  cattle  mutila- 
tions, &c. — in  the  years  immediately  preceding  and 
following  the  murders  in  the  Phoenix  Park,  of  his 
friend  Mr.  Burke,  and  the  Chief  Secretary,  Lord 
Frederick  Cavendish. 

But  though  it  is  impossible  to  blind  ourselves  to  the 
errors  the  "  Young  Ireland  "  party  fell  into,  errors 
which  led  to  so  much  disaster  to  its  members  as  well 
to  their  country,  we  must  acknowledge  that  many  of 
them,  and  particularly  one  of  their  principal  leaders, 
Thomas  Davis,  were  actuated  by  the  highest  and 
purest  motives.  Thomas  Davis  knew  Ireland  so  far 
as  in  his  time  she  could  be  known,  her  history,  an- 
tiquities, and  natural  genius.  "To  amend  the  habits," 
as  Stokes  observed,  "  as  he  had  awakened  the  mental 
energies  of  his  countrymen,  was  the  noble  aim  of 
Thomas  Davis.  To  teach  them  justice,  manliness, 
105 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

and  reliance  on  themselves,  to  supplant  vanity  on  the 
one  hand,  and  servility  on  the  other,  by  a  just  self- 
appreciation  of  a  proper  pride  ;  to  make  them  sensible 
that  nothing  could  be  had  without  labour,  and  nothing 
enjoyed  without  prudence.  For  this,  while  Provi- 
dence left  him  with  us,  he  toiled  with  faithful  and 
unremitting  energy." 

This  revolutionary  movement  therefore,  which 
Davis  had  so  much  at  heart,  afforded  an  example  of 
which  history  has  furnished  so  many,  illustrating  the 
fact  that  men  of  high  education  and  refinement,  and 
actuated  by  the  purest  and  most  unselfish  motives, 
may,  through  a  strange  lack  of  prudence  and  foresight, 
fail  disastrously  in  the  object  they  had  in  view,  and 
bring  dire  calamity  not  only  on  themselves,  but  also 
on  the  country  they  desire  to  serve. 

There  were  few  circumstances  that  gave  Stokes 
greater  concern  than  the  inception  of  the  idea  of 
"  Home  Rule,"  and  the  attempt  to  carry  it  out  by  his 
friend  Isaac  Butt,  a  man  of  exceptionally  great  intel- 
lectual power,  and  for  whom  he  always  entertained 
feelings  of  warm  affection  and  regard.  He  lost  no 
opportunity  of  endeavouring  to  dissuade  Butt  from  a 
course  which  he  warned  him  was  sure  to  end  in 
failure,  and  pointed  out  that  the  ultimate  consequences 
1 06 


FENIAN   DISTURBANCE 

would,  in  all  probability,  be  fraught  with  peril,  and 
with  an  increase  of  disturbance  and  disaffection 
throughout  the  country,  the  extent  of  which  it  would 
be  impossible  to  estimate.  Isaac  Butt,  however,  was 
not  to  be  dissuaded  from  carrying  out  his  policy.  He 
rejected  all  advice  and  warnings,  seeing,  or  affecting 
to  see,  in  the  movement  he  advocated,  an  unfail- 
ing panacea  for  all  the  alleged  woes  of  Ireland,  a 
means  for  its  regeneration,  and  a  source  of  national 
prosperity. 

During  the  Fenian  disturbance  in  1867-68  and 
shortly  after  the  escape  from  Kilmainham  Gaol  of 
James  Stephens,  who  was  its  prime  mover  and 
organiser,  an  incident  occurred  in  Stokes'  professional 
life  which  is  deserving  of  record,  not  only  from  its 
comical  but  also  from  its  melancholy  aspect,  as  it 
shows  how  deeply  a  section  of  the  people  sympathised 
with  that  abortive  revolutionary  movement.  Stokes 
and  his  friend  Dr.  Hatchell,  one  of  the  surgeons  to 
his  Excellency  the  Lord-Lieutenant,  were  summoned 
to  visit  professionally  the  wife  of  an  Irish  nobleman 
who  lived  on  the  confines  of  the  counties  of  Kildare 
and  Dublin.  The  message  was  an  urgent  one,  and 
there  being  no  train  available  at  the  time,  they  both 
drove  down  in  Stokes'  carriage,  the  distance  being 
107 


WILLIAM  STOKES 

about  twenty  miles.  After  seeing  and  consulting 
about  the  patient,  they  started  on  the  return  journey 
at  about  10  p.m.  The  night  was  extremely  dark  and 
cloudy,  not  a  star  to  be  seen,  or  a  gleam  of  moonlight. 
After  proceeding  for  some  two  or  three  miles,  to  add 
to  their  difficulties,  the  carriage  lamps  went  out,  and 
the  rain  began  to  pour  down  in  torrents.  The  road 
now  became  very  rough  and  uneven,  and  it  was  soon 
obvious  that  they  had  got  off  the  main  road  and  into 
some  intricate  byway.  They  stopped  the  carriage, 
and  Hatchell  got  out  and  walked  on  a  short  distance, 
hoping  to  see  some  cottage  in  which  information  could 
be  got,  and  perhaps  a  guide  obtained,  to  aid  them  in 
their  dilemma.  For  a  long  time  the  search  was  un- 
availing, but  at  last  a  light  was  seen  coming  from  a 
cottage  at  a  little  distance  from  the  road.  Hatchell 
cautiously  advanced  to  the  door,  being  naturally 
anxious  as  to  the  probably  hostile  intentions  of  a 
watchdog,  which  seemed  to  regard  his  appearance  with 
displeasure.  This  he  evidenced  by  barking  furiously. 
Nothing  daunted,  however,  Hatchell  advanced  and 
knocked  timidly  at  the  door  to  which  there  was  no 
response,  until  a  second  and  firmer  repetition  of  the 
summons  was  made.  Then  the  door  was  opened  by 
a  stalwart,  slenderly  clad,  middle-aged  female  with  dis- 
108 


FENIAN   DISTURBANCE 

bevelled  hair,  evidently  in  a  resentful  mood  at  being 
disturbed  at  so  late  an  hour.  Hatchell  explained  the 
situation,  and  ended  by  asking  for  some  one  to  come 
and  show  them  the  way  as  otherwise  they  would  have 
to  remain  out  all  night.  "Show  you  the  way,  is  it?" 
replied  the  virago,  "  there's  no  one  here  to  do  it,  him- 
self is  in  bed  these  two  days  with  a  stuffin'  in  his 
chest,  and  the  boy's  away."  While  Hatchell  con- 
tinued to  urge  on  her  to  assist  them,  "  himself " 
appeared  on  the  scene,  and  he  too  was  obviously 
indisposed  to  aid,  although  offered  a  pecuniary  reward. 
Then  a  happy  thought  occurred  to  Hatchell.  Stoop- 
ing down  he  whispered  mysteriously  into  the  man's 
ear.  "If  you  knew  who  it  is  that's  in  the  carriage 
below  you'd  come  quick  enough.  Don't  ask  me  his 
name,  but  I'll  tell  you  this  much — it  begins  with  an 
S  !  "  "  Holy  Mother  of  God,"  said  the  man,  "  do  you 
tell  me  so  ?  Wait  a  bit  and  I'll  be  with  you — Patsy," 
he  cried  to  the  son  who  was  snoring  peacefully  in  a 
corner  of  the  hut,  "  Git  up  and  we'll  show  the  gentle- 
man the  way."  Soon  they  reached  the  carriage,  the 
father  taking  his  place  beside  the  driver  and  Patsy 
walking  beside  the  horses'  heads.  After  proceeding 
cautiously  and  slowly  for  some  four  or  five  miles,  the 
carriage  stopped,  and  the  man  came  to  the  window 
109  H 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

and  in  a  low  voice  said,  "  Now,  yer  honor,  yer  close 
to  the  Kilmainham  Road,  and  sorra  thing  you  have  to 
do  only  keep  straight  on,  but  turn  to  the  right  when 
you  come  to  Dooley's  and  then  there's  no  demur  till 
yer  in  the  city.  I  come  a  bit  of  a  round,  as  the  polis 
do  often  be  about  here  disturbin'  the  people."  He 
was  then  offered  a  sovereign  which  was  indignantly 
refused.  Hatchell  then  said,  "Well,  boys,  you've 
done  a  good  job  to-night,  God  save  Ireland — We're 
not  bet  yet."  "  Glory  be  to  God  we're  not,"  replied 
the  man,  and  the  carriage  drove  on. 

At  this  time  the  Government  had  offered  a  reward 
of  ^  2,000  for  the  apprehension  of  Stephens. 

The  years  following  the  Repeal  agitation  were  the 
most  painful  and  laborious  of  Stokes'  professional  life. 
The  country  was  at  this  time  passing  through  that 
mournful  period  of  its  history,  the  Great  Famine,  a 
period  which  has  been  often  spoken  of  as  if  it  lasted 
but  for  one  year,  whereas  it  continued  to  recur  for 
four  successive  years.  The  harrowing  scenes  and 
sights  in  the  hospital  wards,  the  long  battle  with  fever 
and  disease,  following  on  starvation,  drew  forth  all  the 
courage  and  manhood  of  a  physician  whose  large- 
hearted  sympathy  and  charity  only  helped  to  make 
the  strain  on  his  system  almost  past  bearing.  Nor 
JIO 


THE  GREAT    FAMINE 

did  rest  come  even  when  the  sufferings  of  the  poorer 
class  at  length  subsided,  and  the  hospital  wards  were 
somewhat  freed,  for  the  scene  was  only  changed  to  the 
homes  of  the  upper  classes,  and  then  Stokes  often 
described  his  days  as  passing  in  "  a  very  whirlwind  of 
work."  To  the  health  of  many  a  good  woman  and 
many  a  noble  lady  in  the  land,  these  years  of  tension 
proved  fatal,  and  their  sufferings  were  only  known  to 
their  physician.  The  long  hours  of  voluntary  duty 
in  the  soup  kitchen,  the  dreary  rides  on  winter  days, 
carrying  saddle-bags  filled  with  meal  and  bread,  over 
famine-stricken  moors  and  bogs,  to  the  hovels  of  the 
dying  creatures  who  crawled  around  the  horses'  legs 
to  grasp  the  offered  food,  the  heart-break  and  the 
misery  of  it  all,  told  on  the  constitutions  of  the 
strongest  and  bravest,  and  William  Stokes  was  often 
heard  to  say,  "  If  ever  a  class  had  its  martyrs  it  was 
that  of  the  Irish  landowner." 

The  tragic  results  of  the  epidemic  of  typhus  fever 
during  the  years  1842-3  were  brought  still  more 
closely  home  to  him  when  he  beheld  the  havoc 
wrought  among  his  medical  brethren  throughout  the 
country.  During  these  years  typhus  fever  prevailed 
to  an  appalling  extent,  and  the  mortality  among 
medical  men,  who  were  engaged  in  the  Poor  Law 
HI 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

service,  made  him  earnestly  desire  to  call  the  attention 
of  Government  to  the  condition  of  this  class  of  his 
medical  brethren,  and  the  labours  and  risks  to  which 
they  were  then  exposed.  In  1 843,  when  the  Medical 
Charities  Bill  was  brought  forward,  he  and  Mr. 
Cusack  united  in  the  effort  to  procure  for  these 
gentlemen  some  fitting  recognition  of  their  labours. 
They  repaired  to  London  to  give  evidence  on  the 
subject  before  the  House  of  Commons.  Both  these 
friends  had  had  to  deplore  the  loss  of  many  of  their 
dearest  and  most  promising  pupils,  who,  after  a  short 
experience  of  country  practice,  had  fallen  victims  to 
fever,  contracted  in  discharge  of  their  duties.  They 
pleaded  that  in  all  justice  the  remuneration  for  attend- 
ance on  fever  hospitals  and  dispensaries  should  be  fixed 
at  a  liberal  scale,  and  that  some  provision  ought  to  be 
made  for  the  widows  and  children  of  gentlemen  who 
had  lost  their  lives  in  the  public  service.  They  col- 
lected statistics  which  proved  that  during  a  period  of 
twenty-five  years,  the  mortality  of  the  medical  practi- 
tioners of  Ireland  was  24  per  cent.,  while  in  most 
instances  the  cause  of  death  was  typhus  fever.  They 
showed  that,  on  the  authority  of  Inspector-General 
Marshall,  the  comparative  mortality  of  combatant 
officers  in  the  army  was  less  than  half  that  amount, 
112 


MEDICAL   CHARITIES   BILL 

being  io£  per  cent.  It  was  little  to  be  wondered  at 
that  William  Stokes  should  say,  in  answer  to  the 
Chairman's  question  regarding  the  existence  of  any 
special  risk  to  the  medical  officer  in  Ireland,  "  Such  a 
number  of  my  pupils  have  been  cut  off  by  typhus 
fever  as  to  make  me  feel  very  uneasy  when  any  of 
them  take  a  dispensary  office  in  Ireland.  I  look  upon 
it  almost  as  going  into  battle."  Again  he  observes  : 
"The  medical  practitioners  in  Ireland  are  placed  in  a 
position  very  different  from,  and  far  more  serious  than 
that  of  their  brethren  in  Great  Britain.  .  .  .  The 
Irish  physician  is  often  exposed  to  contagion  in  its 
most  concentrated  force  when  himself  under  the  influ- 
ences of  cold,  wet,  fatigue,  and  hunger,  as  he  labours 
among  the  poor,  passing  from  hovel  to  hovel  in  wild 
and  thinly-populated  but  extensive  districts.  He  has 
often  to  ride  for  many  hours  in  the  worst  weather, 
and  at  night,  enduring  great  fatigue,  while  himself  a 
prey  to  mental  as  to  physical  suffering,  for  if  we  add 
to  such  labour  the  injurious  influence  which  the  know- 
ledge of  danger  must  have  on  the  system  of  a  man 
feeling  that  he  is  struck  down  by  the  disease  under 
which  he  has  seen  so  many  sink,  and  tortured  by  the 
thought  of  leaving  a  young  family  unprovided  for,  we 
can  understand  how  it  happens  that  the  country  is  so 

"3 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

often  deprived  by  death  of  so  many  of  its  best-educated 
and  most  devoted  servants." 

The  demand  based  on  these  considerations  was 
partially,  though  only  partially,  successful. 

It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  if  for  a  time,  after  such 
experiences  as  are  here  referred  to,  we  should  find 
traces  of  melancholy  in  such  letters  as  the  following 
written  to  his  wife,  July  6,  1849  : — "  ...  I 
have  been  too  often  to  blame  for  low  spirits,  but 
sometimes  this  has  arisen  from  the  exhaustion 
of  mind  which  the  multiplicity  of  my  cares 
and  objects  produce  upon  me.  I  feel  myself  the 
centre  of  a  great  system,  a  great  machine,  complicated 
and,  from  its  very  nature,  unresting,  and  I  know  that 
I  often  fail  in  the  mere  physical  power  to  keep  it 
going  smoothly.  The  position  I  now  occupy  is  no 
bed  of  roses,  as  many  who  only  look  on  the  surface 
might  think,  and  the  last  dreadful  two  years,  with 
their  medical  and  political  excitement  and  national 
misery,  have  acted  terribly  on  me.  Loving  my 
unhappy  country  with  a  love  so  intense  as  to  be  a 
pain,  its  miseries  and  downward  progress  have  lace- 
rated my  very  heart,  and  the  '  hope  deferred '  of 
seeing  some  better  state  of  things  has  had  its  ordinary 
effect.  When  you  think  of  these  and  other  things, 
114 


LETTERS   TO  HIS  WIFE 

and  reflect  that  they  have  acted  on  a  mind  too  sensi- 
tive and  never  well  regulated,  with  attachments 
painfully  strong  to  the  perishable,  and  without  clear 
or  active  tendencies  to  the  imperishable,  you  will 
understand  that  whenever  I  do  not  keep  all  my 
blessings  strongly  before  me,  I  am  liable  to  feel  very 
low.  I  am  not  a  man  of  the  world  in  the  common 
sense  of  the  word.  I  do  not  love  it,  and  you  know 
that  there  are  very  few  outside  my  own  dear  family 
in  whose  society  I  feel  any  enjoyment.  My  pro- 
fession is  on  the  whole  not  a  depressing  one  to  most 
men.  Nor  does  it  in  its  ordinary  routine  depress  me. 
But  when  a  death  of  importance  happens,  and  that 
some  busy  devil  within  you  whispers  that  had  you 
done  something  else  the  result  would  have  been 
different,  and  when  such  an  idea  from  your  own 
weakness  becomes  fixed,  then  there  is  a  misery  pro- 
duced which  corrodes  one's  very  vitals.  The  deaths 
of  George  Greene,  of  Curran,1  of  Davis,  and  of 
McCullagh,  struck  me  down  heavily,  for  in  my 
treatment  of  all  these  cases  I  feel  something  to  regret. 
In  many  such  instances  the  feeling  is  a  mistaken  one, 
for  we  fret  for  not  having  done  that  of  which  we  had 

1  A  young  physician  of  great  promise,  who  had  been  a  favourite  pupil 
of  Stokes.     He  died  of  typhus  fever. 

"5 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

no  knowledge  we  ought  to  have  done,  and  if  we  do 
our  best,  why  should  we  be  dissatisfied  ?  But  still  the 
feeling  is  irresistible,  and  comes  over  one  like  a  winter 
cloud.  This  and  the  seeing  those  we  love  in  sickness 
are  the  great  miseries  of  the  profession  of  medicine. 
But  when  I  think  of  all  the  blessings  God  has  given 
me,  and  His  goodness  in  enabling  me  to  give  my 
children's  young  hearts  the  enjoyments  which  are 
natural  to  them,  I  feel  ashamed  that  I  should  ever 
be  conquered  by  melancholy." 

There  is  probably  no  sadder  chapter  in  the  history 
of  Ireland  than  that  which  deals  with  the  period  of 
the  great  famine  of  1847  and  1848,  and  in  addition  to 
its  sad  results — the  poverty,  starvation,  disease,  and 
death,  which  it  carried  in  its  train,  it  had  also  the 
unhappy  effect  of  kindling  the  latent  fires  of  dis- 
affection and  disloyalty,  which  unhappily  are  not  yet 
altogether  extinguished.  The  accounts  Stokes  has 
given  in  letters,  conversation,  and  published  writings, 
more  especially  in  connection  with  famine  fever,  of 
which  there  was  such  a  severe  epidemic  at  that  time, 
illustrate  remarkably  the  descriptive  powers  he 
possessed. 

As  some  of  our  greatest  poets  and  romance  writers 
have  at  times  associated  the  comic  with  the  tragic 
116 


THE  GREAT   FAMINE 

element  in  their  works,  of  which  many  examples 
might  be  cited,  so,  in  the  descriptions  of  some  of  his 
experiences  acquired  during  this  disastrous  period, 
Stokes  would  sometimes  introduce  an  account  of  an 
incident  connected  with  it,  which,  by  its  mirth  pro- 
voking power,  would  throw  the  pathos  of  his  previous 
account  more  fully  into  relief. 

M.  Soyer,  a  celebrated  chef,  had  been  sent  over  by 
the  Government,  to  superintend  the  manufacture  of 
soup  and  its  distribution  to  the  starving  poor  from 
various  centres  in  Dublin.  Stokes  was  accosted  one 
day  by  a  beggar  woman,  who  began  to  bewail  her 
starvation  and  her  other  woes,  when  he  interrupted 
her  by  asking  why,  if  her  hunger  was  so  extreme,  she 
did  not  go  to  secure  some  of  the  soup  which  was  being 
distributed  so  liberally  every  day.  "  Soup,  is  it,  your 
honour  !  sure  it  isn't  soup  at  all."  "  And  what  is  it, 
then  ? "  inquired  Stokes.  "  It  is  nothin',  your 
honour,  but  a  quart  of  wather  biled  down  to  a  pint, 
to  make  it  sthrong  !  " 

During  a  visit  in  1850  to  Sir  Robert  Gore  Booth, 
of  Lissadill,  Co.  Sligo,  whose  praiseworthy  efforts  to 
better  the  condition  of  the  poor  sufferers  in  that 
district  were  well  known  and  fully  appreciated  at 
that  time,  Stokes  wrote  home  as  follows  : — 
117 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

"LlSSADILL,    Co.    SLIGO,l85O. 

"This  is  a  noble  place.  The  house — a  plain  and 
stately  structure  —  stands  on  a  tableland  stretching 
out  from  the  hill  side,  and  it  commands  the  most 
glorious  mountain  views  on  three  sides  of  the  building. 
I  think  the  semicircle  of  mountains  cannot  be  less 
than  fifty  miles  in  extent,  and  the  forms  are  as  beauti- 
ful and  varied  as  any  ranges  I  have  seen  in  Ireland. 
Many  of  them  are  washed  by  the  Atlantic,  and  so  you 
have,  in  infinite  varieties  of  combination,  all  the  effects 
of  park  and  wood,  mountain,  sea,  and  lake,  wherever 
you  turn.  The  demesne  itself  hangs  over  the  sea,  and 
is  so  extensive  that  the  roads  within  its  bounds  are 
thirty  miles  in  length.  The  surface  is  beautifully 
broken,  and  the  woods,  lawns,  and  rocky  banks 
clothed  with  wild  plants,  seem  endless.  Then  this 
*  happy  valley  '  is,  like  Mr.  Waterton's,  a  place  of 
refuge  for  any  bird.  No  nest  is  to  be  robbed,  no  bird 
killed  within  its  bounds,  and  such  is  their  appreciation 
of  these  advantages  that  you  may  see  flocks  of  gold- 
finches of  more  than  a  hundred  together.  A  curious 
thing  happened  here  yesterday.  Two  robins  flew 
into  the  greenhouse  which  belongs  to  the  clergyman: 
One  of  them,  it  is  thought,  by  beating  against  the 
glass,  killed  itself.  The  windows  were  opened  to  let 
118 


LISSADILL— SLIGO 

the  other  escape  ;  but  no,  it  would  not  go,  but  kept 
with  its  dead  comrade  fluttering  over  the  dead  body, 
and  caressing  it  in  every  way.  Sometimes  it  would 
seek  to  pull  it  up  and  place  it  on  its  legs,  and  then, 
failing,  would  show  the  greatest  agitation.  Mrs. 
Jeffcott,  the  parson's  wife,  brought  it  some  crumbs  of 
bread  and  immediately  it  seized  on  one,  and  having 
first  opened  the  bill  of  the  dead  bird,  tried  to  force  the 
food  down  its  throat.  I  do  not  know  whether  it  has 
yet  left  the  dead  bird.  It  is  thought  that  the  pair 
were  parent  and  child. 

"  This  country  is  full  of  forts  and  tumuli,  and  the 
grand  tumulus  of  Knocknaree  is  to  be  seen  crowning 
the  top  of  a  mountain  beyond  Sligo,  but  I  have  not 
found  any  antiquities.  There  is  a  stump  of  a  Round 
Tower  and  a  beautiful  cross  near  this  at  a  place 
called  Drumcliff.  But  what  gives  this  place  its 
greatest  charm  is  that  the  house  is  truly  the  refuge  and 
hope  of  all  that  are  poor,  sick,  and  destitute.  How 
often  do  I  think  of  Christ's  words,  *  Well  done,  good 
and  faithful  servant.' " 

It  was  during  this  visit  at  Lissadill  that  he  wrote 
the  following  letter  relating  to  the  efforts  of  his  host 
during    the    previous    terrible    years  of  Irish    famine, 
119 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

showing  that  even  this  tragic  period  in  the  history  of 
this  country  was  not  without  its  episodes  of  fun  and 
humour. 

"  I  have  heard  a  wonderful  collection  of  anecdotes 
about  the  famine  here.  Sir  Robert  Gore  Booth 
chartered  some  vessels  to  send  out  the  people  free  of 
expense  to  America,  and  when  one  was  on  the  point 
of  sailing,  the  names  of  the  emigrants  were  called 
over.  In  one  case  a  ticket  had  been  given  for  a  man 
and  his  mother  ;  but  when  the  couple  appeared,  the 
mother  was  found  to  be  a  young  girl  of  eighteen. 
This  was  his  sweetheart,  whom  he  had  substituted. 
*  Hallo,'  said  Sir  Robert,  '  who  is  this  one  ?  Is  she 
your  mother  ? '  '  No,  your  honour.'  '  Who  is  she 
then  ?  '  '  She  is  instead  ot  her.'  The  girl  was 
ordered  on  shore,  where  she  set  up  such  a  loud  wailing 
that  Sir  Robert's  heart  relented,  and  he  asked  if  they 
were  married.  l  No,  your  honour,  the  priest  would 
not  marry  us.'  '  Why  so  ? '  said  Sir  Robert.  '  Be- 
cause she  wasn't  my  mother,  sir.'  There  was  a 
priest  on  board,  however,  and  the  couple  were  shortly 
afterwards  united." 

During  a  visit  to  the  County  Westmeath,  shortly 
after  the  famine  years  of  1848-49  Stokes  heard  the 
following  characteristic  anecdote  of  a  young  cattle 
120 


IRISH   STORY 

jobber  who  sold  a  cow  to  the  Protestant  clergyman 
of  the  parish.  The  morning  after  the  purchase  was 
effected  it  was  ascertained  that  the  animal  was 
diseased.  The  jobber  was  sent  for,  and  told  he 
should  return  the  money,  and  take  away  the  cow. 
To  this  he  assented  and  returned  the  money.  Upon 
this  the  clergyman  thought  proper  to  give  him  a 
lecture  on  the  impropriety  of  his  selling  a  diseased 
cow,  when  he  replied,  "Don't  be  angry  with  me, 
your  riverence.  I'm  only  a  lame  boy,  and  have  no 
way  of  livin'  but  by  strategims !  " 


121 


VII 


PATHOLOGICAL    SOCIETY — WORK    ON    DISEASES    OF 
THE  HEART  AND  AORTA 

OHORTLY  after  the  publication  of  Stokes' 
*•— '  work  on  diseases  of  the  chest,  he  took  steps 
to  supply  a  want  which  had  long  been  felt  in  the 
Irish  schools  of  Medicine.  The  object  he  had  in 
view  was  to  make  provision  for  the  exhibition 
and  permanent  record  of  any  specimens  of  patho- 
logical interest  that  might  be  met  with  in  the 
hospitals  of  Dublin.  The  result  of  this  movement 
was  the  founding  and  establishment  of  the  Patho- 
logical Society  of  Dublin  in  1838.  This  was  the 
first  society  of  the  kind  in  the  United  Kingdom. 
In  this  effort  able  assistance  was  given  him  by  Dr. 
R.  W.  Smith,  a  distinguished  pathologist,  who  subse- 
quently became  Professor  of  Surgery  in  the  Univer- 
sity of  Dublin.  The  late  Sir  Dominic  Corrigan 

122 


^.  vf ;/: 


PATHOLOGICAL   SOCIETY 

was  also  an  energetic  supporter  of  the  Society  from 
its  commencement,  and  throughout  his  life  a  constant 
contributor  to  its  transactions. 

The  great  object  of  the  Society  was  the  cultiva- 
tion of  pathological  anatomy,  not  merely  as  a  descrip- 
tive science,  but  rather  in  reference  to  its  more 
important  bearings  on  the  practice  of  the  healing  art, 
the  study  of  morbid  anatomy  being  considered  sub- 
servient to  pathology.  It  was  held  that  little  advan- 
tage could  be  obtained  by  the  description,  however 
minute,  of  morbid  structure  without  careful  attention 
to  symptomatology,  combined  with  a  faithful  record 
of  the  history,  diagnosis,  and  treatment  of  each  case. 
In  fact,  the  practical  application  of  the  truths  of 
pathology  was  to  be  the  primary  object.  To  attain 
this  end  it  was  considered  desirable  that  such  exhi- 
bitions should  be  accompanied  by  a  clear  statement 
of  the  history,  symptoms,  diagnosis,  and  treatment  ot 
each  case,  and  that  the  specimens  should  be  produced 
as  soon  as  possible  after  the  decease  of  the  patient. 

The  Society  consisted  of  presidents,  vice-presidents, 
secretaries,  a  treasurer,  council,  and  ordinary 
members.  Among  the  original  presidents  are  to  be 
found  the  names  of  Abraham  Colles,  Philip  Cramp- 
ton,  Robert  Graves,  and  James  Cusack,  names  of 
123 


WILLIAM  STOKES 

which  the  profession  have  good  reason  to  be  proud. 
The  two  secretaries  were  William  Stokes  and  Robert 
William  Smith.  The  latter  held  the  position  until 
the  year  of  his  death  in  1876  when  he  was  suc- 
ceeded in  the  office  by  Dr.  Edward  H.  Bennett, 
now  Professor  of  Surgery  in  Trinity  College,  Dublin. 
The  Society,  thus  formed,  soon  commanded  the 
support  and  sympathy  of  almost  every  physician  and 
surgeon  of  any  note  in  Dublin,  and  many  provincial 
members  of  the  profession  in  Ireland  also  joined  it. 
In  1854  tne  constitution  of  the  Society  was  altered, 
only  one  President  was  elected  annually,  and  the 
meetings  were  held  every  Saturday  afternoon  during 
the  winter  session  in  the  theatre  of  the  School 
of  Medicine  in  Trinity  College.  A  large  number 
of  the  senior  students  of  the  various  schools  of 
medicine  in  Dublin  enjoyed  the  privilege  and 
advantage  of  being  allowed  to  attend  these  meet- 
ings, a  privilege  which  was  keenly  appreciated. 
Here  they  listened  with  breathless  interest  to  the 
records  of  the  cases  which  had  furnished  the  patho- 
logical specimens  there  exhibited,  and  had  an  oppor- 
tunity of  inspecting  them  subsequently,  and  becoming 
familiar  with  the  microscopic  appearances  of  many 
and  various  forms  of  pathological  change.  No  dis- 
124 


PATHOLOGICAL   SOCIETY 

cussion  was  allowed,  an  arrangement  which,  although 
doubtless  it  would  not  suit  the  requirements  of  the 
present  day,  at  all  events  had  the  advantage  of  enabling 
a  much  larger  number  of  specimens  to  be  exhibited 
than  would  otherwise  have  been  possible.  At  the  end 
of  the  session  a  gold  medal  was  awarded  to  the 
student  who  was  the  author  of  the  best  essay  on  some 
pathological  subject  chosen  by  the  Council,  and  as 
this  prize  was  regarded  as  the  highest  distinction 
obtainable  by  a  student,  the  competition  for  it  was 
always  exceptionally  keen. 

"  The  object  and  scope  of  this  society,"  Dr. 
Hudson  has  observed,  "  might  be  said  to  be  the  reflex 
of  Dr.  Stokes'  character  as  a  pathologist,  not  devoted 
to  any  school  or  system,  but  eclectic,  neither  regard- 
ing morbid  anatomy  as  its  first  object,  but  as  sub- 
sidiary to  pathology  considered  in  its  widest  sense, 
and  embracing  the  history,  symptoms,  diagnosis,  and 
treatment  of  each  case  of  disease  submitted  to  the 
Society.  To  this  Society,  Dr.  Stokes,  as  honorary 
secretary,  devoted  for  many  years  such  time  and 
labour  and  made  numerous  valuable  and  important 
communications.  These,  like  his  other  published 
works,  present  the  combination  of  accurate  observa- 
tion and  clear  insight  with  mature  reflection.  No 

125  < 


WILLIAM    STOKES 

mere  observer  and  recorder  of  random  facts,  he  seems 
always  to  have  kept  in  view  the  ancient  maxim  : 
'Ars  tota  in  observationibus  sed  perpendae  sunt 
observationes.' " 

To  the  students  who  were  permitted  to  attend,  the 
advantages  were  manifold  ;  first  of  all  there  was  the 
exceptional  opportunity  they  were  afforded  of  study- 
ing microscopic  pathology,  and  what  perhaps  was  a 
still  greater  advantage,  the  moral  one,  derived  from 
witnessing  so  many  distinguished  men  such  as 
Corrigan,  Gordon,  Hutton,  Mayne,  Adams,  Banks, 
McDowel,  Law,  R.  W.  Smith,  and  others  whose 
names  were  "  familiar  as  household  words,"  not  only 
attending  the  meetings  from  beginning  to  end  with 
praiseworthy  regularity,  but  also  taking  an  active  part 
in  the  exhibition  of  morbid  specimens,  the  description 
of  which  was  always  accompanied  with  a  graphic 
account  of  the  clinical  features  of  the  case  from 
which  the  specimen  was  obtained. 

The  writer  will  ever  cherish  among  the 
pleasantest  reminiscences  of  his  student  life  the 
meetings  of  the  Pathological  Society,  where,  in 
common  with  the  other  students,  he  was  so  deeply 
impressed  with  the  earnestness,  zeal,  and  enthusiasm 
exhibited  by  so  many  distinguished  members  of  the 
126 


MESMERISM 

Society,  whose  communications,  as  a  rule,  gave 
evidence,  not  only  of  close  and  accurate  observation, 
but  at  times  of  that  eloquence  that  is  ever  a  product 
of  a  genuine  love  of  truth. 

About  the  year  1849-50  Stokes  read  a  paper  at  the 
College  of  Physicians  on  the  light  which  the  study  of 
nervous  diseases  throws  upon  what  was  at  that  time 
termed  Mesmerism,  which  has  subsequently  been 
termed  "  Electro  Biology,"  and  which,  after  a 
lengthened  period  of  occultation,  has  recently  re- 
appeared with  the  classical  and  dignified  title  of 
Hypnotism.  He  shows  that  the  extraordinary 
epidemics  of  nervous  diseases  which  were  prevalent 
in  Europe  for  two  centuries  in  the  Middle  Ages, 
presented  many  features  similar  if  not  identical  with 
the  phenomena  observable  under  mesmeric  influence. 
"  In  some  persons  the  leading  delusion  was  the  belief 
in  heavenly  inspiration,  while  in  the  larger  class,  body, 
soul,  mind,  and  will  were  held  to  be  under  the 
control  of  Satan  or  his  demons.  The  belief  in 
witchcraft  was  universal,  and  the  disease  continued  for 
more  than  two  centuries  unchecked  by  the  most  san- 
guinary laws.  .  .  .  The  intelligence  of  those  affected 
was  exalted,  they  improvised  with  extraordinary  elo- 
quence and  power,  and  frequently  answered  in  Ian- 
127 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

guages  supposed  to  be  unknown  to  them.  .  .  .  This 
condition  of  the  nervous  system  was  communicable 
from  one  patient  to  another  just  as  we  see  hysteric 
diseases  spread  through  the  wards  of  an  hospital. 
Madness,  convulsions,  coma,  tetanus,  hydrophobia, 
epilepsy,  and  hysteria  are  but  manifestations  of  states 
of  the  brain  and  spinal  cord,  which  we  know  to  be 
analogous  to  the  conditions  of  the  induced  or  auto- 
mesmeric  state,  and  as  it  has  pleased  the  Great 
Disposer  of  all  events  to  spare  us  from  the  visitation 
of  these  epidemics  of  madness  which  occurred  in  the 
Middle  Ages,  it  appears  to  be  something  worse  than 
folly  to  reproduce  even  one  of  the  forms  of  the 
malady  indirectly,  when  our  doing  so  can  only  amuse 
the  vulgar  or  astonish  the  ignorant,  while  we  risk  the 
bodily  or  mental  health  of  one  of  our  fellow- 
creatures." 

In  1854  Stokes  delivered  a  discourse  on  the  Life  and 
Works  of  "  his  teacher,  colleague,  and  friend,"  Graves, 
who  had  died  the  year  before  of  a  painful  and  linger- 
ing disease.  Paying  a  tribute  to  the  memory  of  one, 
with  whom  he  had  so  long  worked  in  unison,  was 
indeed  to  him  a  labour  of  love.  The  early  association 
with  Graves  had  had  no  small  effect  in  training  and 
moulding  the  character  of  Stokes,  and  the  differences 
128 


ROBERT  GRAVES 

in  their  youthful  circumstances  and  education,  only 
made  the  one  supplement  the  defects  and  stimulate  the 
energy  of  the  other.  Both  were  original  investi- 
gators, and,  therefore,  successful  teachers,  for  this 
element  of  original  investigation  in  a  teacher  acts  in 
more  ways  than  one :  "  It  leads  to  the  analogic 
method  giving  ever  to  the  past  a  new  freshness.  In 
this  Graves  was  pre-eminent  ;  indeed,  his  active  mind 
was  ever  seeking  for  and  rinding  analogies,  and  this  led 
him  to  the  discrimination  of  things  similar,  and  to  the 
assimilation  of  things  dissimilar  in  a  degree  seldom 
surpassed  by  any  medical  teacher." 

Graves'  labours  marked,  in  Stokes'  opinion,  an  era 
in  the  history  of  British  Medicine,  as  they  combined 
in  a  philosophical  eclecticism  the  lights  of  the  past  with 
those  of  the  present.  For  his  mind,  while  it  mastered 
the  discoveries  of  modern  investigation,  remained  im- 
bued with  the  old  strength  and  breadth  of  view,  so 
characteristic  of  the  fathers  of  British  medicine.  In 
his  clinical  teaching,  the  student  found  the  guidance 
of  a  mind  trained  and  strengthened  by  university 
education,  by  the  study  of  the  exact  sciences  and  of 
literature  ;  while  in  medicine  it  was  so  richly  stored, 
that  it  might  be  taken  as  the  "  exponent  of  the  exist- 
ing state  of  the  science  ;  ardent  in  research,  fruitful  in 
129 


WILLIAM  STOKES 

discovery,  no  miser  of  its  wealth,  but  pouring  forth  its 
richness  to  all  who  would  receive  it." 

Graves'  death  at  a  comparatively  early  age  was 
keenly  felt  by  Stokes  ;  in  him  he  lost  a  steadfast 
and  loyal  colleague,  and  one  whose  learning  and 
exceptional  mental  powers  placed  him  among  the 
first  of  the  distinguished  men  of  his  profession  in 
Ireland. 

In  1863  Stokes  edited  a  volume  consisting  of  a 
collection  of  Graves'  contributions  to  Medicine  and 
Physiology  which  had  been  published  in  various 
journals.  The  work  was  entitled  "Studies  in  Phy- 
siology and  Medicine."  "  Graves  was  a  man,"  says 
Sir  Henry  Acland,  "who  in  a  marked  degree  com- 
bined the  scientific  mind  of  the  physiologist  with  the 
intensely  practical  quickness  of  the  clinical  observer." 
One  of  his  sayings  used  to  be,  "  When  I  am  dead  let 
my  epitaph  be,  '  He  fed  fevers.' "  His  work  on 
clinical  medicine,  and  his  remarkable  powers  as  a 
clinical  teacher,  will  never  be  forgotten  in  the  history 
of  Medicine  in  Ireland. 

In  1854  Stokes  was  called  upon  by  the  Provost  and 

Senior  Fellows  of  Trinity  College  to  open  the  Medical 

Session  with  an  address,  a  significant  fact  in  the  history 

of  the  Dublin  University,  since  it  implied  the  increased 

130 


STATE  MEDICINE 

energy  with  which  the  heads  of  the  University  were 
turning  their  attention  to  the  condition  of  the  Medical 
and  Surgical  Schools.  It  was  by  Stokes'  influence  and 
through  his  arguments  that  the  movement  in  the  Dublin 
School  towards  an  identical  training  for  the  physician 
and  surgeon  was  set  on  foot,  and  it  was  to  him  that 
the  founding  of  a  diploma  in  State  Medicine  in  con- 
nection with  Trinity  College,  Dublin,  was  mainly 
due.  He  now  set  himself,  in  the  first  instance,  to  dis- 
pel the  factitious  and  unreasonable  division  of  his  pro- 
fession into  medicine  and  surgery  ;  "  sooner  or  later," 
he  held,  "that -this  distinction  would  be  obliterated." 
"  The  human  constitution,"  he  says,  in  his  opening 
address  on  State  Medicine,  "  is  one  ;  there  is  no 
division  of  it  into  a  medical  and  surgical  domain  ;  the 
same  laws  and  the  same  principles  apply  to  the  cure  of 
a  fractured  bone  and  the  cicatrisation  of  an  internal 
ulcer."  What  he  now  laboured  for,  however,  was  not 
the  fusion  of  the  two  branches  of  the  profession, 
though  to  this  he  looked  forward,  as  likely  both  to 
further  the  progress  of  science  and  to  elevate  the 
moral  and  political  status  of  the  profession,  but  rather 
identity  in  the  fundamental  education  of  both.  There- 
fore he  urged  the  heads  of  the  University  to  extend 
the  benefits  of  general  education  to  the  surgical,  as 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

well  as  to  the  medical,  student.  From  an  early 
period,  surgery  had  been  excluded,  or  but  feebly 
recognised,  in  the  academic  system  of  the  old 
Universities.  As  yet  the  diploma  had  not  yet  been 
obtained  or  sought  for  by  any  candidate  who  had  not 
graduated  in  Arts  and  Medicine  ;  and  he  urged  the 
carrying  out  of  one  great  reform,  which  was  that  full 
degrees  in  Surgery  should  be  conferred,  having  an 
equal  rank  with  those  of  Medicine,  and  requiring  that 
the  candidate  should  have  completed  his  education  and 
graduated  in  Arts.  He  observes,  "  Do  not  be  misled 
by  the  opinion  that  a  University  education  will  do 
nothing  more  than  give  you  a  certain  proficiency  in 
Classical  Literature,  in  the  study  of  Logics  and  Ethics, 
or  in  Mathematical  or  Physical  Science.  If  it  does 
these  things  for  you,  you  will  be  great  gainers,  for 
there  is  no  one  branch  of  professional  life  in  which 
these  studies  will  not  prove  the  most  signal  help  to 
you.  But  it  has  other  and  equally  important  results  ; 
it  enforces  respect  for  the  ordinances  of  religion  ;  it 
habituates  the  mind  to  the  humility  of  prayer  ;  it 
enlarges  it  by  communion  with  contemporaries  who 
are  preparing  for  their  varied  walks  in  life ;  and  it 
excites  the  best  ambition,  by  presenting  so  many 
examples  of  successful  exertion  ;  and  lastly,  it  serves 
132 


WORK   ON  THE   HEART  AND  AORTA 

you  by  increasing  your  self-respect.  .  .  .  You  are  to 
support  the  dignity  of  a  noble  profession,  therefore 
your  mental  powers  and  your  moral  perceptions  must 
be  cultivated  and  exalted  ;  but  you  are  also  to  be  placed 
in  a  position,  of  all  others  the  most  fruitful,  not  only  in 
opportunities  of  doing  wrong  to  your  brother  in  the 
dark,  but  of  practising  on  the  credulity  of  mankind — 
therefore  you  must  cherish  the  most  delicate  sense  of 
honour,  and  so  train  yourselves  that  your  conduct  shall 
be  based,  not  so  much  on  the  fear  of  the  consequence 
of  wrong,  as  upon  the  perfect  love  of  that  which  is 
right." 

The  more  than  favourable  reception  which  the  work 
on  diseases  of  the  chest  obtained,  and  the  great  repu- 
tation it  gained  for  the  author,  acted  as  a  healthy 
stimulus  to  him  both  in  writing  and  clinical  teaching. 
From  the  time  of  the  publication  of  the  work  alluded 
to,  and  during  the  succeeding  ten  years,  his  attention 
had  been  mainly  fixed  on  the  study  of  the  affections  of 
the  heart,  and  a  large  number  of  papers  were  con- 
tributed by  him  on  this  subject  to  the  Dublin 
Quarterly  Journal  of  Medical  Science^  of  which  he 
was  formerly  the  editor,  as  well  as  to  other  professional 
periodicals.  These  formed  the  basis  of  the  work  on 
"  Diseases  of  the  Heart  and  Aorta,"  one  which  may 

'33 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

be  said  to  be  equal  in  importance  and  value  to  the 
previous  one  on  Diseases  of  the  Chest.  The  late  Pro- 
fessor Lindwurm  1  of  Munich  translated  this  work  on 
the  Heart,  and  in  his  preface  he  states  that  the  views 
of  the  author  are  in  many  respects  opposed  to  those 
then  prevalent  in  Germany,  and  that  now  they  must 
decide  between  the  Irish  and  the  German  theory,  as 
to  the  treatment  and  development  of  the  diseases 
of  the  heart.  "  Thus,"  he  says,  "  our  more  modern 
German  works  are  to  a  greater  or  lesser  extent  only 
treatises  on  the  physical  diagnosis  of  organic  affections 
of  the  heart ;  Stokes,  on  the  contrary,  resists  this  one- 
sided tendency  which  bases  the  diagnosis  solely  on 
physical  signs  and  disregards  the  all-important  vital 
phenomena ;  he  lays  less  weight  on  the  differential 
diagnosis  or  lesions  of  the  several  valves  and  on  the 
situation  of  a  sound  than  on  the  condition  of  the 
heart  in  general,  and  especially  on  the  question  as  to 
whether  a  murmur  is  organic  or  inorganic,  and 
whether  the  disease  itself  is  organic  or  functional, 
and  he  devotes  his  special  attention  to  what  were  at 
that  day  supposed  to  be  functional  disturbances  of  the 
heart,  such  as  occur  in  typhus,  in  anaemia,  and  in 

1  "  Die  krankheiten  des  Herzens  und  tier  Aorta  von  Dr.  Wm.  Stokes, 
im  auftrage  des  verfassers  aus  deni  Englischen  von  Dr.  J.  Lindwurm." 
Wurzburg,  1855. 

134 


WORK    ON  THE  HEART    AND  AORTA 

nervous  conditions  of  that  organ."  The  method  of 
study  which  he  deplored  was  one  that  led  men  to 
ignore  signs  of  change  continually  at  work,  signs 
also  that  may  be  separate  from  the  original  and 
more  important  disease  "  which  lies,  as  it  were, 
hidden  by  the  effects  of  the  disturbance  it  has  itself 
excited."  J 

Stokes  could  not  form  a  judgment  without  viewing 
his  subject  all  round,  as  it  were,  taking  in  his  full 
grasp  the  entire  phenomena  of  the  case,  and  it  was 
felt  that  so  large  and  liberal  a  spirit  in  the  conception 
of  disease  must  revolutionise  the  dogmatic  routine  of 
.practice.  As  one  of  his  reviewers  says,  "  The  closest, 
most  profound,  and  reflective  study  of  disease  is  the 
characteristic  of  his  work.  When  face  to  face  with 
some  inexplicable  difficulty  in  the  case  before  him,  he 
reasons  from  the  past  circumstances  of  such  a  case, 
and  reflects  in  his  examination  of  its  present  state, 
until  by  long  pondering  on  its  unusual  phenomena, 
the  solution  of  the  difficulty  presents  itself  in  the  form 


1  This  work  was  also,  in  1858,  translated  into  Italian  by  Dr.  Antonio 
Longhi  ("  Malattie  del  Cuore  e  dell  Aorta  di  Guglielmo  Stokes,  Primo 
traduzione  Italiana  per  cura  del  Dottore  Antonio  Longhi."  Torino,  1858)  ; 
and,  in  1864,  into  French  by  Dr.  Senac  ("  Traite  des  Maladies  dur  Cceur 
et  de  L'Aorte  par  William  Stokes.  Ouvrage  traduit  par  le  Dr.  Senac." 
Paris,  1864). 

'35 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

of  a  question,  put  with  the  modesty  of  one  who  is  a 
searcher  into  Nature's  secrets."  z 

In  this  work  the  result  of  Stokes'  clinical  observa- 
tions are  embodied,  "  Observations  continued,"  he 
observes  in  the  Preface,  "almost  unremittingly  for 
upwards  of  a  quarter  of  a  century.  Yet  it  is  not  to 
be  taken  as  a  record  of  every  observation  on  disease 
of  the  heart  which  may  have  been  noted  by  me 
during  that  time,  but  rather  as  expressing  the  state 
of  opinion  produced  in  my  own  mind  by  a  long 
experience,  even  though  I  cannot  recall  many  of  the 
facts  on  which  that  opinion  is  founded." 

He  did  not  attempt  in  this  instance  to  produce 
a  comprehensive  treatise,  but  mainly  confined  himself 
to  dealing  with  those  facts  and  problems  connected 
with  cardiac  disease  to  which,  for  a  lengthened  period, 
he  specially  had  directed  his  attention.  He  shows 
that  clinical  experience  not  "  unfrequently  fails  to 
coincide  with  the  minute  descriptions  given,  and  the 
laws  definitely  and  precisely  laid  down  in  some  books 
by  the  best-known  authors,  but  that  complications  and 
difficulties  at  times  arise  which  not  only  baffle  the 
inexperienced,  but  even  those  of  large  experience. 

1  See  Dublin  Quarterly  Journal  of  Medical  Science,  vol.  xvii.  pp.  124, 
135.     (1854.) 

136 


WORK    ON   THE    HEART    AND   AORTA 

Those  difficulties  he  believed  have  arisen  from  a 
too  exclusive  reliance  on  diagnosis  founded  solely 
on  physical  signs,  vital  phenomena  being  over- 
looked. 

In  the  first  chapter,  dealing  mainly  with  inflamma- 
tion of  the  heart  and  its  membranes,  much  stress  is 
laid  on  the  character  of  the  pulse  in  pericarditis,  and 
it  is  shown  that  no  special  condition  of  pulse  can  be 
described  as  belonging  to  any  form  or  stage  of  the 
disease. 

In  the  treatment  of  pericarditis  it  is  pointed  out 
that  the  routine  antiphlogistic  system  of  treatment 
may  be  carried  too  far,  and  may  not  be  devoid  of 
danger,  also  that  there  was  no  analogy  between 
pleurisy  and  pericarditis,  and  that  the  latter  is  much 
less  capable  of  bearing  any  long  continuance  of  de- 
pletory measures.  He  was  of  opinion  that  many  cases 
have  been  lost  from  overlooking  the  value  of  stimu- 
lants, and  that  in  some  cases  the  operation  of  paracen- 
tesis  may  be  resorted  to  with  advantage. 

The  succeeding  chapters  deal  with  the  organic  disease 
of  the  organ,  of  the  muscular  structures  and  of  fatty 
degeneration.  The  sixth  chapter  deals  mainly  with 
the  treatment  of  hypertrophy,  either  per  se  or  asso- 
ciated with  valvular  disease,  and  it  is  contended  that, 
137 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

in  the  latter  case,  the  rules  laid  down  by  Sir  D.  Cor- 
rigan  should  be  adopted. 

In  these  chapters  is  to  be  found  the  description  of 
the  "  Cheyne-Stokes  respiration,"  in  connection  with 
fatty  degeneration  of  the  heart,  a  condition  observed 
by  Cheyne,  although  not  connected  by  him  with  any 
special  cardiac  lesion.  "A  form  of  respiratory  dis- 
tress, peculiar  to  this  affection,  consisting  of  a  period 
of  apparently  perfect  apnoea,  succeeded  by  feeble  and 
short  inspirations,  which  gradually  increase  in  strength 
and  depth  until  the  respiratory  act  is  carried  to  the 
highest  pitch  of  which  it  seems  capable,  when  the 
respirations,  pursuing  a  descendant  scale,  regularly 
diminish  until  the  commencement  of  another  apnoeal 
period.  During  the  height  of  the  paroxysm  the 
vesicular  murmur  becomes  intensely  puerile"  (p.  336). 
In  connection  with  this  subject  it  should  be  noted  that 
Stokes  never  committed  himself  to  any  theories  as  to 
its  explanation,  nor  did  he  restrict  it  to  the  condition 
in  which  he  had  observed  its  best  illustrations. 

Here  also  are  to  be  found  in  the  section  on  Cardio- 
therapeutics,  the  principles  first  enunciated  which  are 
practically  identical  with  those  now  known  as  the 
Schott  methods.  Stokes  observes,  "  In  the  present 
state  of  our  knowledge  the  adoption  of  the  following 
138 


WORK    ON   THE   HEART   AND    AORTA 

principles  in  the  management  of  a  case  of  incipient 
fatty  disease  seems  justifiable  : — 

"  We  must  train  the  patient  gradually  but  steadily 
to  the  giving  up  of  all  luxurious  habits.     He  must 
adopt  early  hours,  and  pursue  a  system  of  graduated  mus- 
cular exercises ;  and   it   will   often  happen    that,  after 
perseverance  in  this  system,  the  patient  will  be  enabled 
to   take   an   amount   of  exercise   with    pleasure   and 
advantage,  which  at  first  was  totally  impossible,  owing 
to  the  difficulty  of  breathing  which  followed  exertion. 
This  treatment  by  muscular  exercise  is  obviously  more 
proper  in  younger  persons  than  in  those  advanced  in 
life.     The  symptoms  of  debility  of  the  heart  are  often 
removable  by  a    regulated  course  of  gymnastics   or    by 
pedestrian  exercise,  even    in    mountainous    countries, 
such  as  Switzerland,  or  the  Highlands  of  Scotland  or 
of  Ireland.     We  may  often  observe  in  such  persons 
the  occurrence  of  what  is  commonly  known  as  '  get- 
ting the  second  wind,'  that  is  to  say,  during  the  first 
period  of  the  day,  the  patient  suffers  from   dyspnoea 
and  palpitation  to  an   extreme  degree,  but  by  perse- 
vering, without  over-exertion,  or  after  a  short  restj  he 
can   finish    his    day's   work    and    even    ascend    high 
mountains  with  facility.     In    those   advanced  in  life, 
however,  as  has  been  remarked,  the  frequent  complica- 

'39 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

tions  with  atheromatous  disease  of  the  aorta,  and 
affections  of  the  liver  and  lungs  must  make  us  more 
cautious  in  recommending  the  course  now  specified  " 

(P-  357)-1 

The  use  of  mercury  in  cases    of  a  weak,   dilated 

heart  in  connection  with  hepatic  enlargement  and 
pulmonary  disease,  is  fully  discussed,  and  rules, 
dietetic  and  hygienic,  such  as  early  hours,  muscular 
exercises,  &c.,  are  laid  down. 

One  of  the  most  important  chapters  in  this  work 
is  that  on  the  condition  of  the  heart  in  typhus  fever. 
In  this  the  author  points  out  and  discusses  exhaus- 
tively the  remarkable  and  important  changes  that  the 
muscular  substance  of  the  heart  undergoes  in  this 
disease.  Although  it  remains  doubtful  whether  these 
changes  may  not  be  due  to  the  commencement  of 
decomposition,  or  to  typhus  lesions,  the  author  inclines 
to  the  latter  theory,  his  views  being  opposed  to  those 
of  Graves  on  this  point,  and  coinciding  with  those  of 
Laennec,  and  also  of  Louis  in  reference  to  the  fact 
that  the  left  ventricle  is  the  portion  of  the  heart 
primarily  affected. 

1  It  is  worthy  of  note  that  Dr.  W.  Bezly  Thome,  the  author  of  the 
well-known  treatise  on  "The  Schott  Methods"  of  treatment,  fully 
acknowledges  that  this  system  of  Cardio  Therapy  is  evolved  from  prin- 
ciples "  first  proclaimed  by  Stokes  ''  (see  Preface,  2nd  edition). 


WORK    ON   THE   HEART  AND   AORTA 

The  varieties  in  the  phenomena  occurring  in  cases 
where  there  were  evidences  of  cardiac  softening  are 
ably  discussed,  as  well  as  the  principles  of  treatment 
that  should  guide  us  in  these  cases. 

In  the  concluding  chapter  he  discusses  displacement, 
rupture,  and  deranged  action  of  the  heart,  also  angina 
pectoris  and  cardiac  neuralgia.  He  also  describes  a 
murmur  heard  in  typhoid  fever,  to  which  he  gives  the 
name  of  the  "typhoid  anaemic  murmur."  The  last 
two  chapters  deal  with  Aneurysm  of  the  Thorax  and 
Abdominal  Aorta. 

"This  volume  on  the  Diseases  of  the  Heart," 
observes  Sir  Henry  Acland,  in  his  admirable  and  appre- 
ciative sketch  of  Stokes'  life  drawn  for  the  New 
Sydenham  Society,  "  was  at  once  accepted,  and  since 
has  been  received  as  one  of  the  most  acute,  graphic, 
and  complete  accounts  of  the  clinical  aspects  of  the 
organ  under  discussion.  It  exemplifies  in  a  very 
remarkable  way  the  several  characteristics  of  Dr. 
Stokes'  mind,  at  once  so  purely  scientific  and  so  emi- 
nently practical.  No  practitioner  can  open  the  volume 
without  feeling  it  to  be  a  storehouse  of  knowledge 
obtained  at  the  bedside.  It  is  sufficient  to  refer  to  the 
table  of  cases  at  the  close  of  the  volume  and  to  the 
several  summaries  at  the  end  of  the  discussion  of  the 
141  K 


WILLIAM  STOKES 

various  forms  of  heart  disease  to  satisfy  oneself  of  the 
truth  of  this  observation,  but  two  illustrations  of  his 
acuteness  and  care  may  here  be  given. 

"We  read  that  a  murmur  with  the  first  sound, 
under  certain  circumstances,  indicates  lesion  of  the 
mitral  valves.  And  again,  that  a  murmur  with  the 
second  sound  has  this  or  that  value.  All  this  may  be 
very  true,  but  is  it  always  easy  to  determine  which  of 
the  sounds  is  the  first,  and  which  the  second  ?  Every 
candid  observer  must  answer  this  question  in  the 
negative.  In  certain  cases  of  weakened  hearts  acting 
rapidly  and  irregularly,  it  is  often  scarcely  possible  to 
determine  the  point.  Again,  even  where  the  pulsa- 
tions of  the  heart  are  not  much  increased  in  rapidity, 
it  sometimes,  when  a  loud  murmur  exists,  becomes 
difficult  to  say  with  which  sound  the  murmur  is 
associated.  The  murmur  may  mask  not  only  the 
sound  with  which  it  is  properly  synchronous,  but  also 
that  with  which  it  has  no  connection,  so  that  in  some 
cases  even  of  regularly  acting  hearts,  with  a  distinct 
systolic  impulse,  and  the  back  stroke  with  the 
second  sound,  nothing  is  to  be  heard  but  one  loud 
murmur. 

"  So  great  is  the  difficulty  in  some  cases,  that 
we  cannot  resist  altering  our  opinions  from  day  to 
142 


WORK   ON   THE   HEART   AND   AORTA 

day  as  to  which  is  the  first  and  which  the  second 
sound.  .  .  . 

"To  the  inexperienced  the  detailed  descriptions  of 
such  phenomena  as  the  intensification  of  the  sounds 
of  the  pulmonary  valves ;  of  constrictive  murmurs  as 
distinguished  from  non-constrictive  ;  of  associations 
of  different  murmurs  at  the  opposite  sides  of  the 
heart  ;  of  pre-systolic  and  post-systolic,  pre-diastolic 
and  post-diastolic  murmurs,  act  injuriously — first,  by 
conveying  the  idea  that  the  separate  existence  of  these 
phenomena  is  certain,  and  that  their  diagnostic  value 
is  established  ;  and  secondly,  by  diverting  attention 
from  the  great  object,  which — it  cannot  be  too  often 
repeated — is  to  ascertain  if  the  murmur  proceeds  from 
an  organic  cause  ;  and  again,  to  determine  the  vital 
and  physical  state  of  the  cavities  of  the  heart.  .  .  . 

"If  the  question  as  to  the  practicability  of  the 
negative  diagnosis,  with  reference  to  either  orifice,  be 
raised,  it  appears  probable  that  where  a  mitral  murmur 
is  manifest,  it  will  be  easier  to  determine  the  absence 
of  disease  of  the  aortic  valves  than  to  declare  the 
integrity  of  the  mitral  valves  in  a  case  of  aortic 
patency.  The  experience  of  each  succeeding  day 
devoted  to  the  study  of  diseases  of  the  heart  will  make 
us  less  and  less  confident  in  pronouncing  as  to  the 

H3 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

absence  of  disease  in  any  one  orifice,  although  no 
physical  sign  of  such  a  lesion  exist,  if  there  be  mani- 
fest disease  in  another,  or  again,  if  there  be  symptoms 
of  an  organic  affection  of  the  heart." 


144 


VIII 

VISIT  TO  EDINBURGH — SIR  JAMES  SIMPSON — NICE — 
PHYSICIAN  TO  THE  QUEEN — FELLOWSHIP  OF 
THE  ROYAL  SOCIETY — TOUR  IN  GERMANY 

IN  1 86 1,  the  degree  of  LL.D.  (honoris  causa]  was 
conferred  on  Stokes  by  the  University  of  Edin- 
burgh, and  few  distinctions  obtained  by  him  were 
more  highly  appreciated  and  valued. 

During  his  visit  to  Edinburgh,  to  receive  the 
degree,  he  was  a  guest  of  Professor  (afterwards  Sir 
James)  Simpson,  a  man  whose  originality,  genius, 
unceasing  industry,  and  kindliness  of  heart,  won  for 
him  so  many  friends  and  admirers.  Stokes  always  felt 
it  both  a  privilege  and  a  pleasure  to  be  counted  among 
them.  He  describes  the  ceremony  of  conferring  the 
degrees  in  the  following  letter  to  his  wife  : — 

"  Next  day  we  assembled  at  the  Hopetoun  Rooms 
and  put  on  our  robes.  I  had  a  black  gown  with  a 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

blue  hood  and  I  had  just  put  it  on  when  in  walked 
Lord  Brougham.  He  wore  a  great  coat  and  a  black 
cravat  so  deep  that  it  seemed  intended  to  keep  his  head 
on.  He  was  then  robed  in  a  gown  heavy  with  gold 
and  with  a  huge  gold  tassel,  and  in  all  my  experience 
I  never  saw  anything  so  comical.  The  black  cravat, 
the  high  collars,  the  twitching  moving  nose,  and  the 
restless  activity  of  the  old  man  were  marvellous.  He 
looked  like  one  of  our  figures  in  the  charades.  Then 
we  formed  a  long  procession,  and  marched  into  the 
hall  amid  loud  cheering.  I  never  heard  so  noble  a 
speech  as  Lord  Brougham's.  When  he  advanced  to 
deliver  it,  he  took  off  his  cap,  and  then  his  grand 
gown,  and  looked  like  an  old  gladiator  stripping  for 
the  fight.  This  action  greatly  delighted  the  students. 
I  wish  you  would  read  the  speech  bit  by  bit,  for  to  go 
through  it  all  at  once  would  tire  you.  In  the  evening 
we  dined  and  were  very  pleasant,  and  I,  fortunately, 
had  no  speech  to  make.  I  might  have  spoken  for  the 
sister  Universities,  but  I  allowed  the  Principal  of  St. 
Andrews  to  answer  to  the  toast.  I  have  been  most 
kindly  received  by  everybody,  but  yesterday  was  the 
crowning  day.  I  forgot  to  tell  you  that  on  Friday 
evening  Dr.  Simpson  and  I  went  to  the  drawing-room 
of  the  Lord  High  Commissioner  at  Holyrood.  You 
146 


never  saw  such  a  comical  court.  There  was  a  screen 
placed  across  the  long  room  where  the  pictures  of  all 
the  kings  are,  and  at  the  entrance  side  we  saw  a  man 
in  a  red  frock  coat  who  proved  to  be  the  representative 
of  Majesty  !  Then  we  got  into  a  room  about  half 
the  size  of  our  drawing-room,  filled  with  ladies  and 
gentlemen.  Miss  M.  and  Lady  B.  were  seated  on 
a  dilapidated  sofa,  and  Miss  M.  got  up  and  sang  two 
Scotch  songs,  '  My  Nannie's  awa  '  was  one  of  them. 

"  Yesterday — Saturday — Henry1  and  I  went  off  with 
Dr.  Simpson  at  8  a.m.  to  Kelso  by  train,  passing 
Abbotsford  and  Melrose.  We  lunched  at  the  doctor's 
at  Kelso,  and  then  went  to  the  mighty  ruins  of  the 
Abbey.  It  is  one  of  the  finest  Romanesque  buildings 
in  Scotland.  We  drove  to  the  valley  of  the  silver 
Tweed  and  to  Dryburgh  Abbey,  and  from  that  to 
Melrose,  where  we  joined  the  train.  How  I  longed 
for  you  and  Margaret,  for  never  in  so  short  a  space  of 
time  did  my  eyes  and  heart  drink  in  so  much  beauty. 
The  day  was  warm  and  bright  and  clear,  the  wind 
from  the  south-west,  and  now  and  then  a  little  shower 
fell  after  which  the  sun  burst  out  in  glory.  The  trees 
had  their  young  leaves  out,  yet  not  so  far  advanced  as 

1  Stokes'  youngest  son  who  subsequently  became   a    member  of  the 
Madras  Civil  Service. 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

wholly  to  hide  their  forms,  and  they  seemed  to  move 
and  dance  in  the  colour  and  light  of  heaven.  All 
along  the  silver  Tweed  flowed  on  through  its  banks, 
which  now  rose  into  cliffs,  now  made  gentle  sweeps 
through  the  more  open  country,  its  water  clear  as 
crystal.  Dryburgh  Abbey,  where  Scott  lies  buried,  is  so 
embowered  with  trees  that  you  do  not  see  it  till  you 
are  at  its  walls.  Trees  around,  and  trees  within,  and 
the  sun  shining  on  its  lovely  fragments  of  sculptured 
arches,  walls  and  windows,  with  the  air  clear  as 
diamond  and  soft  as  gossamer  ;  the  wild  cherries 
one  wilderness  of  blossom,  the  wild  flowers  blooming 
over  every  carving  and  mullion  in  crowns  of  gold,  the 
thrushes  singing,  and  the  murmur  of  the  Tweed  heard 
as  a  silver  accompaniment. 

"  Here  lies  Scott — in  his  own  loved  Borderland, 
surrounded  in  his  poet's  grave  by  everything  that  he 
loved  so  much  in  Nature  and  place  and  story.1  We 
tore  ourselves  away.  We  passed  Smalholme  Castle,  a 

1  The  reader  will  remember  the  passages  in  Lockart's  "Life  of  Scott" 
describing  his  death  and  funeral  (vol.  vii.  pp.  394,  396)  :  "It  was  a  beauti- 
ful day,  so  warm  that  every  window  was  wide  open — and  so  perfectly  still 
that  the  sound  of  all  others  most  delicious  to  his  ear,  the  gentle  ripple  of 
the  Tweed  over  its  pebbles,  was  distinctly  audible  as  we  knelt  around  the 
bed  and  his  eldest  son  kissed  and  closed  his  eyes.  The  wide  enclosure  at 
the  Abbey  of  Dryburgh  was  thronged  with  old  and  young,  and  when  the 
coffin  was  taken  from  the  hearse  and  again  laid  on  the  shoulders  of  the 
afflicted  serving  men,  one  deep  sob  burst  from  a  thousand  lips." 

I48 


VISIT  TO   EDINBURGH 

Border  keep,  and  we  passed  the  House  of  Bemerside  ; 
you  know  the  saying — 

" '  Betide,  betide,  whate'er  betide 
The  Haig  shall  be  in  Bemerside  ;  ' 

and  in  a  loop  of  the  Tweed,  with  woods  rising  all 
round,  we  saw  '  Old  Melrose,'  the  original  site  of  the 
Abbey.  The  woods,  the  river  and  the  background 
of  the  Eldon  Hills,1  and  the  valley  of  Thomas  the 
Rhymer,  and  hills  of  Lammermuir,  all  made  a  picture 
that  would  have  delighted  you.  We  next  drove  to  the 
ruined  city  of  Rosburgh,  and  came  to  Melrose  Abbey, 
which  we  closely  examined.  Henry  was  in  raptures. 
I  bought  two  quaighs  and  I  pulled  a  piece  of  ivy  for 
you,  and  then  we  got  back  to  Edinburgh  at 
6  o'clock  p.m.,  having  passed  a  day  the  like  of 
which  I  may  never  hope  to  pass  again." 

In  the  following  year  the  first  of  a  long  series  of 
sorrows  occurred  which  largely  impaired  the  happiness 
of  his  domestic  life.  This  was  the  death  of  his 
daughter,  Mrs.  J.  B.  Cowan,  at  Glasgow,  and  which 
was  soon  followed  by  that  of  a  favourite  nephew. 

1  The  writer  has  recently  learned  from  Mrs.  A.  M.  Porter,  a  Scottish 
lady,  that  the  popular  tradition  in  connection  with  these  hills  is  that  the 
"  familiar "  of  the  great  wizard,  Michael  Scott,  for  some  reason  best 
known  to  the  ghost,  one  night  split  the  hills  up  into  their  present 
grotesque  shapes. 

I49 


WILLIAM    STOKES 

His  wife's  health,  too,  at  this  time  gave  cause  for  great 
anxiety,  and  she  was  ordered  to  winter  on  the  Riviera. 
In  the  course  of  the  winter,  William  Stokes  visited 
his  family  at  Nice.  In  a  letter  describing  his  journey 
he  observes,  "  I  had  to  stay  most  of  Sunday  at  Toulon 
as  1  could  not  go  on,  all  the  places  in  the  diligence 
being  engaged  for  two  days,  and  only  yesterday  crossed 
the  Esterel  and  came  here  at  8  p.m.  The  beauty  of 
the  innumerable  valleys  of  the  Esterel  is  wonderful. 
They  are  clothed  with  a  carpet  like  an  Indian  shawl 
of  the  finest  and  most  varied  colours,  produced  by  the 
close  growth  of  olives,  cork  trees,  and  arbutus,  ilex, 
myrtle,  the  Mediterranean  heath,  rosemary,  lavender, 
and  many  other  exquisite  plants  the  names  of  which 
I  could  not  tell.  Above  me  were  the  fantastic 
summits  of  the  hills,  while  white  patches  of  snow 
intermingled  with  the  colours  of  these  wonderful 
slopes.  Nothing  in  Nature  can  be  more  beautiful  than 
these  valleys.  We  went  to  Cimiez  on  Thursday  and 
had  a  grey  but  pleasant  day.  The  effect  of  colour 
produced  in  the  low  grounds  by  the  orange  groves  was 
very  singular.  Little  frills  of  gold  among  the  silvery 
olives.  I  am  delighted  with  the  olives.  I  first  saw 
them  as  I  came  to  Toulon,  but  there  they  were  low 
and  bushy.  Their  silvery  gloss  is  most  singular. 

150 


NICE 

They  give  one  the  idea  of  having  been  all  served 
out  with  an  infinitesimal  dust  of  eider-down, 
yet  when  the  sun  strikes  these  they  glitter  and 
almost  sparkle  in  the  breeze.  Here  they  grow 
into  noble  trees  and  with  such  wonderfully 
contorted  stems  and  roots.  A  kind  of  lichen  grows 
on  them  which  forms  the  most  beautiful  diamond 
pattern  on  the  dark  back  of  the  stems.  The  lichen  is 
light  grey,  almost  white. 

"I  have  seen  nothing  here  like  the  valleys  of  the 
Esterel.  What  a  place  for  a  water-colour  painter  ! 
Everything  is  there  and  in  such  generous  abundance 
and  extent  that  one  begins  to  think  that  the  old  world 
is  left  behind  and  you  are  translated  to  the  very  gates 
of  paradise,  where 

"  'that  birk  grew  fair  eneuch.' 

These  valleys,  which  are  innumerable,  must  be  like 
those  we  read  of  in  Greece,  each  forming  a  picture  so 
that  you  can  take  it  in  as  a  separate  study.  They  are 
like  corries  in  Scotland,  those  that  I  saw  varying  in 
length  from  two  to  five  miles,  crowned  and  crested 
with  rocky  outlines,  in  which  the  ingenuity  of  nature 
is  brought  to  its  highest  power  in  producing  variety 
and  beauty.  Up  almost  to  the  top,  and  in  every  nook 
15* 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

and  ravine,  grow  feathery  pines  and  ash  trees,  while 
the  slope  stretching  from  the  perpendicular  rock  far 
down  to  the  river's  edge  forms  one  carpet  of  colours, 
a  close  forest,  but  of  shrubs  and  flowering  plants 
where  you  see  the  arbutus,  ilex,  olive,  and  glorious 
Mediterannean  heath,  with  here  and  there  a  feathery 
pine  and  ash  tree,  not  in  dense  clumps  but  in  twos  and 
threes,  each  group  most  perfect  in  beauty.  Now  and 
then  you  have  a  glimpse  of  the  blue  sea.  Try  and 
imagine  all  this  with  the  shadows  of  evening,  and  the 
air  loaded  with  perfume,  and  you  may  form  some  idea 
of  this  marvellous  district." 

From  London,  after  visiting  his  wife  at  Nice  : — 
"  My  day  in  Paris  was  somewhat  dull .  It  was 
snowing.  After  I  left  Higgins  r  I  went  to  the  Louvre 
and  wandered  through  its  endless  galleries.  There 
was  little  light,  of  course.  The  collection  is,  on  the 
whole,  not  worthy  of  France.  A  portrait  by  Raffaelle 
of  a  gentleman  is  the  best  thing  I  saw.  The  Last 
Supper  I  do  not  think  much  of,  though  it  is  wonder- 
fully drawn  and  painted,  but  the  head  of  the  Saviour  is 
feeble  and  the  composition  faulty,  from  its  crowding 
and  anachronisms.  I  was  more  interested  by  the  faces 
of  the  people  who  were  painting  than  by  anything 

1  A  well-known  physician  in  Paris  at  that  time. 
152 


VISIT  TO   THE  CONTINENT 

else.  The  ladies  especially.  They  all  seemed  to  tell 
some  similiar  story  of  talent,  and  goodness  and  sorrow. 
Many  of  them,  I  am  sure,  were  working  for  their 
bread,  at  least  so  I  judged  from  the  subjects  they 
were  working  at,  which  were  not  exactly  those  which 
a  woman  would  choose  if  left  to  her  own  good 
instincts." 

Shortly  after  his  return  from  the  Continent  he 
received  the  distinction  of  being  appointed  one  of  the 
Physicians  in  Ordinary  to  Her  Majesty  the  Queen  in 
Ireland.  The  year  following  he  was  elected  to  the 
Fellowship  of  the  Royal  Society,  his  proposers  being 
Professor  (afterwards  Sir  George)  Stokes,  Sir  Thomas 
Watson,  Bart.,  the  Earl  of  Dunraven,  Sir  Thomas 
Larcom,  Professor  Harvey,  and  Dr.,  now  Sir  Henry 
Acland,  Bart.,  K.C.B. 

In  the  autumn  of  1863  two  of  his  sons,  Whitley 
and  Henry,  went  out  to  India,  and  the  happy 
circle  of  his  family  was  still  further  broken  up  by 
illness  and  death.  Stokes  was  suffering  from  over- 
work and  great  depression  till  persuaded  to  take  a 
holiday  abroad.  The  writer  of  this  memoir  was 
then  residing  at  Dresden,  and  wrote  urging  him 
to  join  him,  feeling  sure  that  the  art  galleries  of 
that  city  would  prove  a  source  of  intense  pleasure 

153 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

to  him.  Nor  was  he  disappointed,  as  the  following 
account  of  the  impression  Raffaelle's  chef  (Poeuvre^ 
the  Madonna  di  San  Sisto,  made  upon  him 
proves  : — 

"DRESDEN,  September  i,  1863. 
"  We  have  spent  the  greater  part  of  two  days  in 
the  picture  gallery  here.  You  will  like  to  know 
what  effect  the  Madonna  of  Raphael  had  on  me. 
I  expected — I  don't  know  why — a  greater  glory  or 
strength  of  colour.  But  after  gazing  a  few  minutes 
on  this  marvellous  work  I  felt  how  wrong  I  had 
been.  It  is  placed  in  a  separate  room,  which  it 
seems  to  turn  into  a  sanctuary.  No  matter  how 
many  are  present,  there  is  a  silence,  or,  if  people 
speak,  it  is  in  the  lowest  whisper.  Involuntarily 
you  walk  on  the  floor  on  tip-toe,  and  all  uncover 
the  head.  The  principal  colours  are  purple  and  red, 
both  so  delicate  and  so  harmonised  that  they  give 
to  the  whole  figure  the  purity  of  Heaven.  To 
speak  of  the  expression  of  the  Child  !  Oh  !  such 
love,  power,  sadness,  prophecy,  in  both  faces,  as  they 
look  into  the  infinite,  and  raise  you  up  to  be  part 
of  it.  The  whole  was  a  dream  of  the  painter.  He 
saw  the  Blessed  Mother  descending  to  him  from 
Heaven,  and  so  he  painted  her.  In  her  eyes  I  could 
154 


VISIT   TO   DRESDEN 

see  a  strange  surprise,  a  wild  but  subdued  feeling  of 
awe,  that  she  should  carry  in  her  bosom  the  wonder- 
ful, the  mighty  God,  the  Prince  of  Peace.  She  does 
not  look  on  Him,  but  into  space,  and  her  gait  seems 
rapid,  for  the  purple  hood  rises  full  above  her,  while 
her  naked  feet  hardly  imprint  the  rolling  cloud  which 
floats  between  her  and  earth.  I  feel  it  presumptuous 
to  write  this  ;  for  this  is  a  work  that  l  no  matter 
moulded  form  of  speech '  can  ever  describe.  .  .  . 
One  effect  of  it  is  to  make  you  careless  about  all 
the  other  treasures  of  this  vast  gallery,  in  which  you 
have  works  of  Correggio,  Titian,  Sassoferrato,  and 
hundreds  of  other  great  painters.  The  finest 
Correggio  I  ever  saw  is  here,  the  Entombment  of 
the  Virgin.  The  Infant  Christ,  Sleeping,  by  Sasso- 
ferrato, is  a  beautiful  picture.  Holbein's  Madonna 
is  here  too,  and  under  it  is  a  beautiful  specimen 
of  Van  Eyck." 

From  Dresden  the  party  journeyed  to  Regensburg, 
then  down  the  "  Royal  Danube  "  to  Linz,  and  from 
that  to  Gmiinden,  crossing  the  lake  under  the 
precipice  of  the  mighty  Traunstein,  the  highest 
mountain  of  that  splendidly  picturesque  district. 
"  The  air  had  that  softness  and  almost  crystalline 
155 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

clearness  that  precedes  rain,  and  as  we  drew  towards 
Ebensee,  one  side  of  the  lake  showed  all  its  glorious 
and  fantastic  rocks,  forest,  hills,  and  mountains  in 
deep  purple,  while  on  the  opposite  coast  to  which 
we  were  running  the  woods  and  grassy  slopes  in 
the  sunlight  were  richest  green  and  gold.  For  more 
than  two  hours  on  our  drive  to  Ischl  this  scene 
of  wonder  was  visible,  and  even  after  darkness  had 
set  in  the  Traunstein  and  its  court  of  hills,  one  more 
beautiful  than  the  other,  could  be  distinguished.  .  .  . 
Next  morning  we  started  in  a  wagen  for  Salzburg. 
The  road  soon  brought  us  to  the  lake  of  Wolf- 
gang, almost  surrounded  by  high  snow-capped  moun- 
tains. The  rain  cleared  off  at  eleven  o'clock,  and 
then  came  the  colours  and  glittering  glory  of  the 
scene.  The  lake  of  the  most  delicate  blue,  then  the 
soft  green  slopes  broken  into  a  thousand  forms  with 
the  wild  forest,  and  above  all  the  mountains  on  whose 
sides  seemed  to  hang  long  wreaths  of  vapour-like 
spirits.  One  high  group  rose  thousands  of  feet,  and 
round  it  like  a  zone  was  a  complete  ring  of  these 
magical  clouds.  On  leaving  the  lake  we  walked 
a  long  way  up  through  the  hills  among  sloping 
lawns  covered  with  the  wild  crocus  and  flowers 
innumerable,  among  clear  flashing  streams  wander- 

156 


ON   THE   CONTINENT 

ing  from  rock  to  chasm,  and  washing  the  feet  of 
cliffs  hung  with  creepers,  while  below  still  lay  the 
lake  with  its  mountain  background  appearing  more 
and  more  beautiful  as  we  advanced,  as  if  to  entice 
us  to  stay.  .  .  ." 


157 


IX 


MEDICAL  EDUCATION — MEDICAL  ETHICS — PREVEN- 
TIVE MEDICINE — WORK.  ON  FEVER — D.C.L. 
OXON. 

T  N  1 86 1  and  the  years  immediately  succeeding 
-*•  it,  Stokes'  mind  was  much  occupied  with  the 
subject  of  Medical  Education.  In  1861,  and  again 
in  1864  he  delivered  two  addresses,  one  in  the  Meath 
Hospital  and  the  other  in  the  University  of  Dublin. 
Filled  with  a  sense  of  the  greatness  of  his  pro- 
fession, he  insisted  again  and  again  on  the  means 
he  deemed  best  fitted  to  elevate  it  in  general  esti- 
mation and  in  social  position,  and  maintained  that 
the  training  of  the  physician  or  surgeon  should  in 
no  way  be  inferior  to  that  required  for  candi- 
dates for  the  Church  or  Bar.  As  a  basis  of 
special  personal  instruction  he  believed  a  more  sound 
and  larger  general  culture  was  essential.  With- 
158 


MEDICAL   EDUCATION 

out  such  culture  he  insisted  that  no  special 
training  could  bear  its  fullest  fruit,  and  that 
because  of  the  various  contrasts  now  established 
between  medicine  and  the  whole  range  of  the 
sciences.  Thus  to  advance  medicine  now  he 
showed  that  we  must  call  to  our  aid  the  sciences 
of  acoustics,  chemistry,  and  optics.  The  micro- 
scope, he  says,  "  has  done  for  pathological  anatomy 
what  the  telescope  did  for  astronomy.  For  even 
as  the  early  shepherds  had  their  A  returns,  their 
Orion,  and  the  sweet  influences  of  the  Pleiades, 
but  knew  nothing  of  the  infinite  glories  which 
circled  above  them  ;  so  in  the  study  of  structure 
the  unassisted  eye  saw  but  the  salient  points  of 
the  change,  and  remained  ignorant  of  all  that  lay 
beyond  and  below  them." 

Again,  he  says,  what  is  above  all  things  needful  for 
the  true  physician  is  the  philosophic  habit  of  mind 
which  a  large  and  liberal  education  is  best  fitted  to 
produce.  "  Medicine,"  he  said,  "  is  not  a  handicraft 
governed  by  a  fixed  rule,  or  any  set  of  rules  that 
you  can  learn  by  rote.  It  is  not  a  study  of  fixed,  but 
of  varying,  conditions."  Hence  he  inferred  that  to 
deal  with  it  the  mind  must  have  the  suppleness 
and  resource  which  will  enable  it  to  adapt  itself 
159 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

to  complex  phenomena  exhibiting  from  time  to  time 
new  characters  and  varied  combinations,  and,  though 
no  system  of  education  will  give  the  mens  medlca 
which  seems  to  be  a  gift  of  nature,  it  is  evident  that 
a  general  cultivation  of  the  powers  of  the  mind,  and 
rational  habits  of  observation  and  induction,  must 
be  the  best  preparation  for  so  important  an  attain- 
ment. 

"  There  is  no  reason,"  he  adds,  "  why  all  branches 
of  human  knowledge  should  not  travel  and  conquer 
by  the  same  paths.  A  larger  study  of  ethics  may 
improve  the  common  and  the  equity  law,  and  with 
divinity,  what  light  may  not  come  from  studies  such 
as  have  too  long  been  held  foreign  to  it  ?  From  the 
general  history  of  Man,  from  archaeology,  from  the 
history  of  living  and  extinct  creatures  of  all  kinds, 
the  study  of  the  crust  of  the  earth,  the  science  of 
language,  and  the  laws  of  latent  and  manifest  life  ? 
Thinking  on  these  things,  may  we  not  hope  re- 
verently, not  confidently,  that  all  truths,  whether 
revealed  or  disclosed,  will  in  God's  own  time 
be  found  to  be  in  unison,  and  that  the  proofs 
of  the  complete  correlation  of  His  works  and 
laws  will  increase  with  every  year  of  man's  life  on 
earth  ?  " 

160 


MEDICAL   EDUCATION 

He  dwells  on  the  importance  of  uniting  physio- 
logical and  medical  study  with  those  of  divinity 
and  law,  the  result  of  which  should  be  mental 
enlargement  and  protection  from  charlatanism  and 
falsehood ;  medico-legal  trials  would  thus  bear  a  dif- 
ferent aspect,  parochial  and  missionary  labour  would 
find  a  powerful  increase  to  their  means  of  extending 
their  influences  abroad  among  either  the  peasantry, 
working  classes,  or  uncivilised  races  of  men.  The 
larger  the  mental  culture,  the  better  the  soil  which 
is  to  raise  the  seed  of  any  special  science,  the  richer 
will  be  the  crop ;  the  danger  or  safety  of  know- 
ledge, in  however  small  degree,  is  dependant  on  the 
previous  condition  of  the  mind  that  receives  it, 
and  the  spirit  in  which  it  is  accepted  and  made 
use  of. 

In  education  three  principles  should  guide  our 
system — the  cultivation  of  memory,  of  reasoning,  of 
observation.  The  last  he  shows  has  been  most 
neglected.  Cultivation  of  the  powers  of  correct 
and  minute  observation  he  argues  is  a  paramount 
duty,  and  the  study  of  systematic  botany  and  of 
natural  history  gives  the  best  training  that  can  be 
obtained  to  the  powers  of  observation,  though  their 
practical  and  immediate  use  to  the  student  of 
161 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

medicine  may  not  be  apparent ;  yet  the  trained 
intellect,  the  habits  of  order  and  classification  result- 
ing from  their  study,  remain  after  the  actual 
knowledge  may  be  forgotten. 

The  following  observations  which  have  been  noted 
from  Stokes'  conversations  and  addresses  bear  so  forcibly 
on  medical  education,  that  a  few  of  them  may  here  be 
quoted. 

1.  For  instance,  "It  is  with  societies  of  men,  as 
well  as  with  individuals,  that  which  commands  scientific 
respect  does  not  so  much  depend  on  the  successful 
teaching  of  what  has  already  been  discovered,  as  upon 
the  production    of  original   work    by  the  society  or 
individuals." 

2.  "  It  is  with  the  living  that  medicine  has  to  do. 
The   living   man   must   be  studied   in   health   as  in 
disease  ;    to   the   physician    or  surgeon   the   sick   or 
wounded  man  is  as  the  mineral  to  the  geologist,  as 
the  star  to  the  astronomer." 

3.  "  Other   schools   have   earned    a  reputation    in 
physiology    and    comparative    anatomy,    and     those 
branches   of  medicine   which  are  termed   theoretic  ; 
but  the  enduring  fame  of  the  Dublin  contributions  to 
science   arises    from    their    essential    practicality    and 
truthfulness.     They  are  records  of  unbiassed  observa- 

162 


MEDICAL  EDUCATION 

tion    made    by   men    originally    well    educated,    and 
brought  up  in  a  practical  school." 

4.  "  There  can  be  no  greater  error  than  to  compel 
a  medical  officer  to  attend  to  a  number  of  patients 
beyond  that  which  his  mental  or  physical  powers  can 
reach.     I  speak  from  experience  when  I  say  that  no 
physician  or  surgeon  ought  to  be  called  on  to  attend 
more  than  fifty  hospital  patients  daily ;  to  treat  more 
than  this  proportion  causes  exhaustion  both  of  body 
and  mind,  and  he  is  rendered  unfit  to  perform  duties 
which  of  all  others  require  a  quiet  mind  and  a  vigorous 
frame." 

5.  "  Additional   encouragement  must  be  given  to 
the  students  to  obtain  that  education  which  can  alone 
fit  them  to  preserve  the  social  position  and  rank  of 
their  profession,  to  use  the  words  of  a  great  surgeon, 
to  keep  it  from  degenerating  into  a  trade,  and  the 
worst  of  trades." 

6.  "  In  the  wards  of  the  hospital  the  student  learns 
that  which  cannot  be  taught  in  the  dissecting-room 
or  in  the  theatre  ;  he  learns  to  teach  himself  to  act 
and   to  discover.      And   he   does  much  more.     The 
kindlier  feelings  of  his  heart  are  stirred,  and  he  be- 
comes so  trained  to  works  of  charity  and  mercy  that 
their  practice  is  at  last  a  second  nature.     He  acquires 

163 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

that  moral  courage  by  which  at  the  call  of  duty,  or 
of  mercy,  which  is  duty,  he  learns  to  despise  danger, 
and  to  meet  death  whether  it  comes  by  pestilence  or 
by  the  sword." 

7.  "  Medicine  cannot  be  taught  in  a  purely  medical 
hospital  any  more  than  surgery  in  a  purely  surgical 
one." 

8.  "  Medicine  is  essentially  a    progressive  science, 
and  avails  itself  of  almost  every  branch  of  knowledge 
in  its  progress.     Medicine  is  an  inexact  science,  but 
this  is  no  reproach.     By  this  very  character  it  enters 
into  fellowship  with  the  most  noble  of   human  in- 
quiries." 

9.  "  We  have  to  do  with  something  which  cannot 
be  measured  or  weighed  ;  something,  too,  in  which 
experiment  can  only  be  used  within  narrow  bounds  ; 
an  element  whose  nature  is  yet  unknown,  fleeting  in 
its  action,  and  every  day  producing  new  combinations, 
not  merely  new  because  they  were    never  observed 
before,  but  really  new  as  appearing  for  the  first  time." 

10.  "Every   connection    that    can    be    established 
between  the  mathematical  and  physical  sciences  and 
medicine  will  impart  to  it  more  or  less  of  certainty." 

11.  "Medicine,  in  its  great  quality  as  a  practical 
art,  advances  in  many  directions  ;  of  which  two  may 

164 


MEDICAL   EDUCATION 

be  indicated  as  the  most  important.  One  is  the 
discovery  of  new  facts,  whether  relating  to  physiology, 
pathology,  or  therapeutics,  each  of  which,  even  al- 
though its  practical  bearing  be  not  apparent,  enlarges 
the  boundaries  of  the  field  of  certainty.  The  second 
is  the  application  of  those  new  facts,  on  the  one 
hand,  to  testing  the  value  of  methods  long  in  use  ; 
and,  on  the  other,  as  a  guide  in  the  wilderness  of  the 
unknown  which  stretches  around  us,  which  we  are 
seeking  to  explore,  and  which  we  hope  in  time  to 
reclaim." 

12.  "Do  not    be    misled    by  the    opinion    that  a 
university  education  will  do  nothing  more  than  give 
you  a  certain  proficiency  in  classical  literature,  in  the 
study    of    logic   and    ethics,    or    in    mathematical   or 
physical  science.     But  if  it  does  these  things  for  you, 
you  will  be  great  gainers,  for  there  is  no  one  branch 
of  professional   life  in   which   these  studies  will  not 
prove  the  most  signal  helps  to  you." 

1 3.  "  There  is  nothing  more  difficult  than  for  a 
man  who  has  been  educated  in  a  particular  doctrine  to 
free  himself  from  it,  even  though  he  has  found  it  to 
be  wrong." 

In  the  year  1869  Stokes  planned  a  work  on  Medical 
Ethics,  which,  unhappily,  failing  health  prevented  his 
165 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

ever  accomplishing.  He  published,  however,  a  sketch 
of  the  work  in  the  form  of  an  address  which  he 
delivered  to  the  students  of  the  Meath  Hospital. 
The  subject  comprises  the  principles  of  honour  and 
moral  training  which  make  the  profession  of  medicine 
a  calling  for  the  gentleman  and  the  Christian,  and  he 
enlarges  on  the  duties  and  responsibilities  of  a  pro- 
fession whose  labours  are  a  perpetual  exercise  of 
humanity,  and  in  which,  to  use  his  own  words, 
"  honour  is  so  indispensable  and  so  precious,  that  he 
who  wants  it,  or  who  has  soiled  it,  has  no  business 
there." 

By  the  term  Medical  Ethics  is  meant  the  applica- 
tion of  ethical  principles  to  medical  practice,  and  it  is 
regretfully  pointed  out  that  the  subject  has  hitherto 
been  left  outside  the  formalised  systems  of  education, 
and  it  is  pointed  out  how  overwhelming  are  the 
multiplicity  and  complexity  of  the  circumstances  to 
which  in  daily  professional  practice  ethical  laws  are  to 
be  applied,  how  constantly  cases  arise  in  which  the 
selection  of  the  right  course  of  conduct  as  regards 
patients  and  professional  brethren  is  a  matter  of  real 
difficulty. 

He  deals  with  the  practical  portion  of  his  subject 
by  dividing  it  under  four  heads  : — 

1 66 


MEDICAL   ETHICS 

1.  As  regards  the  conduct  of  medical  men  in  con- 
nection with  Law  and  State  Medicine. 

2.  As  regards  the  patient. 

3.  As  regards  society. 

4.  As     regards     the     profession    to    which    they 
belong. 

Under  the  first  head  he  exposes  the  errors  too  often 
committed  by  medical  men  when  called  on  to  act  as 
witnesses.  He  shows  that  their  principles  should  be 
to  give  independent  opinion  without  being  swayed  by 
partisanship,  that  no  man  should  ever  act  as  a  trained 
expert  to  prompt  a  lawyer  in  his  cross-examination. 
"Knowledge  may  be  held  as  property,  but  it  is,  as 
such,  held  on  trust,  and  that  trust,  looking  at  its 
source,  forbids  its  being  used  as  an  article  of  commerce 
without  some  restriction.  It  is  to  be  employed  for 
the  establishment  of  truth,  not  for  its  suppression  or 
mystification.  We  hold  knowledge  as  under  a  trust 
from  a  higher  power,  and  the  greater  the  value  of  the 
trust  the  more  careful  should  we  be  that  in  our  hands 
it  be  not  desecrated." 

The  following  are  some  of  the  rules  he  lays  down 
that  should  guide  the  practitioner  : — 

Practice   secrecy,  avoid   talkativeness,  never  think 
aloud  in  the  presence  of  your  patient. 
167 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

Never,  when  brought  in  as  a  consultant,  declare  the 
nature  of  a  disease  in  the  absence  of  the  medical 
attendant. 

Never  hold  that  you  have  any  property  in  your 
patient  ;  be  tolerant  with  the  sick  in  their  restless 
desire  to  seek  other  advice  ;  preserve  your  indepen- 
dence ;  eschew  servility. 

As  regards  conduct  in  society,  never  allude  to  your 
success  in  practice.  Be  silent  when  quackery  is  dis- 
cussed. Be  tolerant  when  those  who  converse  on 
medicine,  while  ignorant  of  its  foundation,  reject 
legitimate  medicine. 

Never  originate  discussion  on  medical  topics  in 
conversation.  As  regards  conduct  towards  the  pro- 
fession, consider  first  the  patient,  second  your  profes- 
sional brother,  lastly  yourself.  Be  reticent,  lest  by  a 
casual  word  upon  the  previous  treatment  of  the  case, 
you  inflict  a  stab  in  the  dark  on  your  brother's  reputa- 
tion. 

When  patients  come  from  the  country  never  ignore 
their  local  attendant,  only  correspond  with  them 
through  him. 

Do  not  communicate  any  fresh  discovery  in  the 
case  that  you  may  make,  without  communicating 
such  first  to  him. 

1 68 


MEDICAL   ETHICS 

Make  no  change  of  treatment  without  writing  your 
opinion  to  him.  Have  no  professional  quarrel. 

Such  were  some  of  the  rules  he  would  lay  down  ; 
but  before  all  things  he  strove  to  inculcate  forgetful- 
ness  of  self.  To  the  selfish  man  medicine  is  a  means, 
and  not,  as  she  should  be,  a  mistress,  loved,  worshipped, 
and  served  for  her  own  sake.  He  concludes  with  the 
words  of  Hamlet  in  our  conduct  towards  other  men  : — 

"  Use  them  after  your  own  honour  and  dignity  ;  the  less  they  deserve 
the  more  merit  is  in  your  bounty." 

For  many  years  Stokes  had  long  foreseen  that  the 
demands  of  modern  civilisation  would  lead  the  medical 
profession  into  relation  with  the  Government  of  the 
country.  His  views  as  to  the  necessity  for  joint  action 
of  the  state  and  the  profession  were  in  some  degree 
carried  into  effect  by  the  creation  of  the  General 
Medical  Council,  of  which  Stokes  was  nominated  the 
Crown  Representative  for  Ireland  in  1858.  He  found 
in  Sir  Henry  Acland,  who  for  many  years  presided 
over  the  Council,  and  whose  warm  and  long-tried 
friendship  was  the  support  and  solace  of  his  declining 
years,  his  best  adviser  in  the  all-important  questions 
that  arose  in  connection  with  sanitary  science. 

As  has    been   already  stated  (see   p.    131),   it  was 
mainly     due     to     the    exertions    and     influence    of 
169 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

William  Stokes  that  the  University  of  Dublin  estab- 
lished in  1871  the  Diploma  in  State  Medicine  for 
such  medical  graduates  as  have  made  a  special  study 
of  the  extensive  group  of  subjects  included  under  the 
name  of  Preventive  Medicine.  But  State  Medicine 
included  forensic,  psychological,  as  well  as  preventive 
medicine,  and  his  first  public  utterance  on  this 
question  was  in  his  discourse  on  medical  ethics  in 
1869.  Then  in  1871  he  announces  that  the  Univer- 
sity of  Dublin  had  instituted  the  Diploma  in  State 
Medicine,  the  candidate  for  which  must  not  only  be 
fully  qualified  in  arts  and  medicine,  but  will  be  liable 
to  be  examined  in  pathology  and  in  vital  and  sanitary 
statistics,  engineering  chemistry,  natural  philosophy, 
meteorology,  and  forensic  medicine.  But,  as  has 
been  truly  observed  by  Dr.  Bernard,  of  Derry,  "long 
before  Preventive  Medicine  came  to  the  front,  Stokes' 
ideas  were  well  known  and  appreciated,  and  that  the 
main  object  of  his  labours  was  to  promote  preventive 
as  distinguished  from  curative  medicine." 

State  medicine  is  divisible  under  two  heads,  legal 
and  preventive,  but  the  questions  of  medical  juris- 
prudence contained  in  the  one  are  passed  over,  and  he 
directs  attention  mainly  to  the  question  of  sanitary 
measures  comprised  in  the  other. 
170 


STATE   MEDICINE 

Preventive  medicine  is  to  be  distinguished  from 
curative  as  dealing  with  causes,  while  the  other  deals 
with  effects  which  may  become  causes.  But  he  never 
ceases  to  impress  upon  his  hearers  that  he  speaks  of 
causes  only  in  a  secondary  sense.  The  true  origin  of 
disease  is  not  ascertainable.  The  origin  of  physical  as 
of  moral  disease  remains  a  mystery  ;  it  is  still  a  question 
whether  disease  results  from  any  original,  or  natural 
law  of  our  being,  or  is  its  preordination  by  the 
Almighty  a  punishment  for  the  neglect  of  His  laws  ? 
It  is  a  breach  of  the  laws  of  Nature,  a  perverted  life 
process,  an  encroachment  on  the  Divine  plan  inter- 
fering with  that  vis  medicatrix  which  often  by  a  mere 
influence  of  time  and  rest, 

"  Hath  an  operation  more  divine 
Than  breath  or  pen  can  give  expression  to," 

and  which  may  reduce  these  perversions  back  again  to 
the  physiological  limits  when  health  may  be  restored. 

But  he  shows  that  the  practical  question  for  the 
promoters  of  State  medicine,  is  not  as  to  the  first 
origin  of  disease,  but  as  to  "  how  public  health  is  to  be 
best  maintained  so  as  to  escape  the  influences  which 
deteriorate  it  and  prevent  progressive  physical  and 
moral  decay,  not  of  the  individual  man  alone,  but  of 
communities  of  men  ?  To  ascertain,  to  proclaim, 
171 


and  in  God's  own  time  to  clear  away  the  lets  and 
hindrances  which  everywhere  prevail  to  the  working 
out  of  the  laws  of  the  Almighty  for  the  well-being 
and  the  happiness  of  His  creatures  ;  laws  which  are 
every  day  lost  sight  of  through  that  public  ignorance, 
immorality,  and  selfishness  which,  making  all  things 
subservient  to  the  lust  for  gold,  constitute  the  real 
danger  to  these  countries.  Think,"  he  adds,  "  of 
the  millions  of  our  fellow-men,  brethren,  subjects  of 
the  same  Crown  at  home,  or  on  the  burning  plains 
of  India,  contending  miserably  with,  or  yielding  to 
the  multiplied  evils  of  degradation,  and  consequently 
untimely  death,  from  whom  the  ignorance  of  their 
rulers  as  well  as  of  themselves,  keeps  the  light  of 
knowledge,  and  you  will  admit  that  it  is  a  noble 
object  for  those  who  dwell  in,  and  who  govern  these 
homes  of  science,  our  ancient  teaching  Universities,  to 
prepare  and  send  out  over  the  world  their  disciplined 
and  devoted  soldiers  of  science  and  ethics,  endowed 
with  the  highest  academical  and  social  rank,  to 
contend  with  and  abate  those  moral  and  physical  evils, 
the  growth  of  ages,  the  offspring  of  ignorance,  which 
have  so  long  afflicted  and  retarded  mankind  !  " 

One  of  the  outcomes  of  Stokes'  efforts  in  the  pro- 
motion of  the  study  of  preventive  medicine  was  the 
172 


STATE   MEDICINE 

establishment  of  the  Dublin  Sanitary  Association.  In 
the  theatre  of  the  Royal  Dublin  Society  he  delivered 
one  of  a  series  of  lectures  on  sanitary  science,  under 
the  auspices  of  the  Dublin  Sanitary  Association.  In 
his  discourse  he  dealt  mainly  with  the  causes  and 
origin  of  epidemic  disease,  the  laws  of  contagion, 
sanitary  engineering,  and  sanitary  law.  The  lecture 
was  delivered  with  much  eloquence  and  pathos,  and 
made  a  very  deep  impression  on  his  audience.  It  was 
largely  attended  ;  all  present  knew  they  were  listening 
to  one  who  by  fifty  years'  labour  among  the  poor  of 
Dublin  was  well  fitted  to  instruct  them  in  dealing 
with  these  vital  questions.  "  Here,"  he  said,  "  we 
have  no  subjects  for  oratory  even  if  we  had  the  power 
to  use  it.  But  we  are  here  to  tell  you  that  which  we 
know,  and  which  must  be  known  and  thought  upon, 
and  to  bid  the  victims  of  misery,  physical  degradation, 
and  the  unsparing  pestilence,  plead  for  themselves. 

"  '  Show  you  dead  Caesar's  wounds, 
Poor,  poor  dumb  mouths, 
And  bid  them  speak  for  me.'  " 

In  1864,  shortly  after  the  death  of  his  friend  and 
colleague,  Mr.  Josiah  Smyly,  he  delivered  an  address 
in  the  Meath  Hospital  on  the  life  and  work  of  that 
eminent  and  successful  surgeon.  The  discourse  was 

173 


WILLIAM  STOKES 

full   of  the   sympathy,    good    feeling,   and    generous 
appreciation  of  a  loyal  colleague. 

In  the  following  year  he  was  invited  to  deliver  the 
address  in  medicine  at  the  annual  meeting  of  the 
British  Medical  Association  held  in  Leamington,  and 
chose  as  his  subject,  the  much-disputed  topic  of  the 
"  Change  of  Type  in  Disease."  The  views  held  by 
Alison,  Christison,  Watson,  Graves,  and  many  others, 
that  the  character  or  type  of  many  affections  did 
undergo  change  in  their  time,  change  which  neces- 
sitated a  revolution  in  treatment,  from  a  system  of 
venesection  and  almost  starvation  to  the  exhibition  of 
stimulants  and  the  careful  use  of  nutriment,  found  a 
strong  supporter  in  William  Stokes.  "  This  change," 
he  observes,  "  has  given  rise  to  the  charge  against  our 
predecessors  and  teachers  that  they  were  bad  practi- 
tioners, ignorant  of  true  pathology,  little  better  than 
blind  followers  of  traditional  error.  Not  only  has 
their  power  of  observation  been  questioned,  but  their 
morality  and  honour  have  been  assailed,  for  it  has  been 
suggested  that  the  doctrine  of  change  of  type  was  an 
invention  to  cloak  their  former  errors."  The  exist- 
ence of  such  charges,  and  the  fact  that  writers  such  as 
Professor  Bennett,  of  Edinburgh,  and  Dr.  Markham, 
who  held  that  the  doctrine  of  change  of  type  was 
'74 


CHANGE   OF  TYPE   IN   DISEASE 

untenable,  were  at  variance  with  Stokes'  convictions 
and  experience,  induced  him  to  state  his  views  on  the 
subject  in  this  remarkable  discourse. 

"  Medicine,"  he  says,  "  like  other  professions  involv- 
ing human  interests,  has  been  continually  assailed  from 
without  and  harmlessly.  Attacks  on  her  honour  pro- 
ceeding from  her  own  children,  no  matter  what 
amount  of  ability  may  be  shown,  while  they  inflict  a 
deeper  wound  ever  recoil  upon  their  authors.  This 
has  been  well  exemplified  in  the  case  of  Paracelsus, 
who  burned  the  books  of  the  Greek,  Roman,  and 
Arabian  physicians." 

Impelled  by  a  chivalrous  desire  to  defend  the  great 
fathers  of  medicine,  his  teachers  and  predecessors  in 
his  art,  from  the  charge  of  empiricism  and  ignorance, 
he  shows  what  was  the  experience  of  his  predecessors 
and  then  he  adds  his  own  testimony  to  that  of  the 
teachers  mentioned  above.  He  had  been  thirty  years 
in  practice,  and  had  witnessed  this  change  in  the 
character  or  type  of  fever  in  Ireland  from  1820  to 
1830,  and  from  that  to  1860.  As  Secretary  to  the 
Pathological  Society  of  Ireland  he  had  examined  many 
thousand  specimens  of  diseased  structure,  and,  in  cases 
of  acute  disease,  the  anatomical  changes  were  very 
different  from  these  commonly  met  with  in  the  early 
175 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

periods  of  his  career,  that  is  from  1820  to  1830.  At 
this  time  the  specimens  as  a  rule  all  showed  "  appear- 
ances indicative  of  a  less  degree  of  pathological 
activity."  The  differences  in  the  pathological  changes 
in  certain  acute  inflammatory  affections  observed 
during  the  period  above  specified  and  that  following 
it  were  best  illustrated  in  pneumonia  ;  "the  redness, 
firmness,  compactness,  and  defined  boundary  of  the 
solidified  lung  was  seldom  seen,  and  that  state  of 
dryness,  and  vivid  scarlet  injection,  to  which  I  ven- 
tured to  give  the  name  of  the  first  stage  of  pneumonia, 
became  very  rare.  In  place  of  these  characters  we 
had  a  condition  more  approaching  to  splenisation,  the 
affected  parts  purple  not  bright  red  ;  friable  not  firm  ; 
moist  not  dry  ;  and  the  whole  looking  more  like  the 
result  of  diffuse  than  of  energetic  and  concentrated 
inflammation ;  or  we  had  another  form,  to  which 
Dr.  Corrigan  has  given  the  name  of  blue  pneumonia, 
in  which  the  structure  resembled  that  of  a  carnified 
lung  which  had  been  steeped  in  venous  blood." 

At  the  same  time  he  observed  considerable  alteration 
in  the  pathological  character  of  many  of  the  inflam- 
mations of  the  serous  membranes,  "  the  high  arterial 
injection,  the  dryness  of  the  surface,  the  free  produc- 
tion, close  adhesion  and  firm  structure  of  the  false 
176 


CHANGE   OF   TYPE   IN   DISEASE 

membranes,  in  acute  affections  of  the  arachnoid, 
pericardium,  pleura,  and  peritoneum,  with  which  we 
were  so  familiar  before  the  time  in  question,  ceased 
in  a  great  measure  to  make  their  appearance.  The 
exudations  were  more  or  less  hsemorrhagic,  the  effused 
lymph  lying  like  a  pasty  covering  rather  than  a  close 
and  firm  investment;  it  was  thin,  ill-defined,  and 
more  or  less  transparent.  In  many  of  such  cases, 
during  the  disease,  as  the  late  Dr.  Mayne  has  shown 
in  his  memoir  on  pericarditis,  friction  sounds  were 
never  presented.  Serous  or  sero-fibrinous  effusions 
tinged  with  colouring  matter  replaced  the  old  results 
of  sthenic  inflammation,  and  all  tallied  exactly  with 
the  change  in  the  vital  character  of  the  disease." 

The  writer  is  quite  aware  that  these  views  of 
Stokes,  as  regards  the  alleged  change  of  type  in  inflam- 
matory and  febrile  affections,  are  not  in  harmony  with 
those  held  and  taught  by  the  majority  of  pathologists 
in  the  present  day.  But  still  he  feels  it  is  hard  to 
realise  the  possibility  of  so  complete  an  error  in  this 
respect  being  made  by  those  who  were  possessed  of 
such  exceptional  powers  of  close  and  accurate  observa- 
tion and  large  experience  as  the  illustrious  physicians 
already  mentioned,  and  whose  views  are  still  accepted 
by  many  living  acknowledged  authorities. 
177 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

The  writer  feels  it  would  be  inappropriate  for  him 
to  make  any  dogmatic  assertion  on  this  subject,  it 
being  one  that  lies  outside  his  path  of  study  and 
investigation  ;  but,  having  regard  to  his  own  clinical 
experience  in  surgery,  he  sees  no  justification  for  the 
almost  contemptuous  rejection  of  the  change  of  type 
theory  by  some  pathologists  and  physicians  of  the 
present  time.  Graves,  in  his  "Clinical  Medicine," 
speaking  of  the  variations  in  scarlatina  and  other 
diseases,  as  observed  by  himself  and  others,  remarks 
that  they  "  establish  the  real  existence  of  a  change  in 
the  constitution  of  diseases."  Some  forms  of  so-called 
surgical  disease,  formerly  familiar  to  the  writer  in  his 
student  days,  have  disappeared  or  are  observed  but 
rarely  and  in  a  mitigated  form.  He  alludes  more 
particularly  to  the  extensive  and  violently  acute  forms 
of  syphilitic  phagadcena,  such  as  have  been  described 
so  graphically  and  vividly  by  Mr.  Wallace,  formerly 
surgeon  to  Jervis  Street  Hospital,  phlegmonoid  ery- 
sipelas, and  acute  gangrene,  cases  of  which,  during 
his  student  days,  were  too  frequently  the  subjects  of 
observation  and  treatment  in  the  surgical  wards  of  the 
Meath  and  Richmond  Hospitals ;  also  instances  of 
those  often  fatal  cases  of  anthrax  or  carbuncle  and 
cancrum  oris,  the  latter  relentlessly  sparing  no  struc- 
178 


CHANGE   OF   TYPE   IN   DISEASE 

ture,  and  usually  uninfluenced  by  treatment  however 
bold,  rapidly  pursuing  its  fatal  career  till  checked  by 
death  alone.  Of  such  cases  little  conception  can  now 
be  formed  by  the  surgical  student,  were  it  not  for  the 
descriptions  and  illustrations  of  them  which  happily 
still  survive.  Such  cases  he  never  sees  now. 

As,  therefore,  these  changes  in  the  character  or 
type  of  these  so-called  "  surgical  "  diseases  unquestion- 
ably have  taken  place  during  the  past  twenty-five 
years,  the  writer  sees  no  reason  to  suppose  that  during 
William  Stokes'  professional  career,  changes  of  type 
may  not  have  occurred  in  the  diseases  to  which  he 
devoted  special  attention. 

Bacteriology  has  unquestionably  largely  revolution- 
ised the  views  held  formerly  as  regards  the  pathology 
of  fever  ;  and  doubtless  had  Stokes  and  many  of  his 
distinguished  contemporaries  lived  in  the  present  day, 
many  of  the  views  which  they  held  and  defended  with 
so  much  subtlety  and  ingenuity,  would  probably  have 
been  materially  modified.  Yet,  still,  as  regards  change 
of  type,  there  seems  to  the  writer  that  as  yet  no 
distinct  proof  has  been  given  that  the  theory  is  wholly 
untenable.  There  seems  to  him  no  reason  why,  with 
improved  conditions  of  life,  there  may  not  be  corres- 
ponding changes  in  the  character  and  phenomena  of 
179 


WILLIAM  STOKES 

disease,  due  possibly  to  the  conditions  of  life,  among 
the  poorer  classes  especially,  having  undergone  distinct 
improvement  during  the  past  twenty-five  years.  That 
this  change  for  the  better  has  taken  place  there  can 
be  little  doubt ;  the  question,  therefore,  as  to  the 
truth  or  otherwise  of  the  change  of  type  theory  must 
at  all  events  still  be  regarded  as  "  not  proven,"  and 
consequently  in  the  present  state  of  our  knowledge, 
undeserving  of  the  opposition  it  has  met  with  at  the 
hands  of  many. 

The  change  ot  type  theory  is  strongly  maintained 
in  Stokes'  last  published  work,  "  Lectures  on  Fever 
delivered  in  the  Theatre  of  the  Meath  Hospital " 
I874,1  as  well  as  the  question  ot  separate  identity  ot 
typhus  and  typhoid  fevers,  both  being  subject,  though 
in  varying  degrees,  to  the  law  of  periodicity.  He  held 
that  these  forms,  though  doubtless  presenting  striking 
differences,  yet  were  differences  rather  of  species  than 
of  genera.  The  doctrine  of  essentiality  in  fever  was 
also  one  on  which  Stokes  based  his  views  as  regards  the 
nature  of  fever ;  and  here  again  he  was  strongly 
supported  by  such  accurate  observers  as  Alison, 

1  This  work  was  edited  by  Dr.  Stokes'  pupil  and  friend,  Dr.  J.  W. 
Moore,  physician  to  the  Meath  Hospital,  whose  recently  published  work 
on  fever  ha*  placed  him  in  the  front  rank  among  authorities  on  this 
subject. 

1 80 


WORK   ON   FEVER 

Christison,  and  Graves,  who  coincided  in  these 
doctrines.  But  there  seems  to  be  little  doubt  that, 
as  Sir  William  Gairdner  has  said,  "  by  disowning  the 
essential  difference  between  typhus  and  enteric  and 
between  both  of  these  and  relapsing  fever  they  got 
into  a  wrong  groove."  He  has  raised  the  question 
whether  Christison  and  the  other  advocates  of  the 
identity  doctrine  would  have  held  by  it  after  the 
discovery  of  Obermeier's  Spirillum,  or  Eberth's 
Bacillus  Typhosus.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that 
they  would  have  promptly  abandoned  it.  "  But,"  Sir 
William  Gairdner  observes,  "although  Murchison  has 
rightly  shown  the  misconception  which  arose  out  of 
this  doctrine  as  regards  the  men  of  the  olden  time,  yet 
that  does  not  quite  dispose  of  their  authority  as  regards 
1  change  of  type '  in  general,  and  I  am  content  to 
occupy  a  position  of  suspense  in  some  respects  as 
regards  the  main  question." 

From  these  considerations  it  would  seem  unphilo- 
sophical  to  wholly  accept,  or  entirely  reject,  the 
theory  that  a  change  of  type  has  taken  place  in  the 
character  of  fever. 

It    must    at    all    events    be    admitted    that   if  we 
regard  the  clinical  aspect  or  symptomatology  alone  of 
the  continued  fevers  much  may  be  said  in  favour  of  the 
181 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

view  that  they  are  species  rather  than  distinct  genera  ; 
but  from  an  etiological  standpoint  such  a  doctrine  is 
no  longer  tenable  in  the  light  of  modern  bacterio- 
logical research  and  discovery. 

It  seems  unnecessary  to  discuss  the  doctrine  of 
"  essentiality  "  in  fever.  The  birth  and  development 
of  bacteriological  science  which  has  taken  place  of 
late  years  renders  it  so.  This,  however,  cannot  be 
said  of  the  doctrine  that  both  the  typhus  and  enteric 
forms  of  fever  are  subject  to  the  law  of  periodicity, 
a  doctrine  which  leads  Stokes  to  make  in  these 
lectures  on  fever  "  numerous  observations  of  the 
highest  importance,"  as  was  observed  by  the  author 
of  the  appreciative  obituary  notice  of  Stokes  which 
appeared  in  the  Birmingham  Medical  Review  (April, 
1878).  "We  are  not  permitted,"  he  remarks,  "to 
exclude  many  other  diseases  from  the  operation  of  this 
law.  If  there  is  anything  established  in  medicine 
it  is  that  all  acute  diseases,  when  not  subjected  to 
interference,  tend  to  terminate  within  a  more  or 
less  definite  period.  The  rhythmic  course  of  pneu- 
monia <is  universally  recognised,  and  is  scarcely  less 
marked  than  in  relapsing  fever  or  typhus,  and 
more  marked  than  in  many  examples  of  enteric 
fever." 

182 


WORK   ON   FEVER 

No  clinical  physician  of  experience  can  now  deny 
the  existence  of  the  law  of  periodicity  of  which  Stokes 
speaks.  It  has  been  reserved  for  modern  medical  and 
pathological  research  to  explain  that  law.  Can  we 
doubt  that  the  periodic  ending  of  an  acute  infective 
disease  means  that  the  battle  is  over  and  that  victory 
rests  with  the  defensive  forces  of  the  system  in  their 
struggle  with  the  invading  specific  micro-organisms,  or 
the  poisonous  products  to  which  they  in  their  life  and 
death  have  given  rise. 

But  however  opinions  may  differ  as  to  Stokes' 
theoretical  views  of  the  nature  of  fever,  no  one  will 
fail  to  recognise,  as  the  author  above  quoted  observes, 
"  the  matchless  clinical  acumen  displayed  in  these 
lectures."  Four  of  these  are  devoted  to  the  considera- 
tion of  the  heart  in  fever,  three  to  the  nervous,  and 
one  to  the  hysterical  complications  of  fever.  Of  these 
probably  the  latter  is  the  one  that  has  been  considered 
of  the  highest  import. 

It  may  be  said  in  conclusion  that  in  this  work 
theoretical  views  are  embodied  some  of  which  appear 
not  to  be  in  harmony  with  modern  pathological 
research  ;  but  as  a  "set  off"  against  this,  we  have 
a  record  extending  over  nearly  half  a  century  of 
accurately  noted  clinical  experiences  of  fever,  such 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

as  to  entitle  it  to  a  foremost  place  among  the  classical 
works  on  the  subject. 

In  1865  the  degree  of  D.C.L.  (hon.  causa)  was 
conferred  on  Stokes  by  the  University  of  Oxford  at 
the  Encaenia  of  June  2ist.  Among  the  other  recipients 
of  this  decree  at  the  same  time  were  Professor  (after- 
wards Sir  Robert)  Christison,  of  Edinburgh  ;  Sir  Henry 
Sumner  Maine,  K.C.S.I.,  Cambridge ;  Sir  Hugh 
Rose,  formerly  Commander-in-chief  in  India ;  and 
Lord  Lyons,  Her  Majesty's  Minister  in  Washington. 


184 


X 


VISIT  OF  BRITISH  MEDICAL  ASSOCIATION  TO 
DUBLIN — ARCHAEOLOGICAL  TOUR 

r  I  ^HE  British  Medical  Association,  the  main 
-••  objects  of  which  have  been  truthfully  stated 
to  be  "the  advancement  of  medical  science,  and 
the  elevation  of  the  social  condition  of  our  pro- 
fession," had,  ever  since  its  inception  by  Sir  Charles 
Hastings,  commanded  the  sympathy  and  goodwill 
of  Stokes.  It  was,  therefore,  a  source  of  unalloyed 
satisfaction  to  him  to  learn  that  its  annual  meeting 
was  to  be  held  in  Dublin  during  the  autumn  of 
1867.  The  meeting  proved  a  remarkable  one,  from 
the  number  of  distinguished  professional  men  who 
attended  it,  and  from  the  fact  that  it  was  the  first 
time  the  association  was  hospitably  received  by  a 
University.  It  may  be  said  that  at  that  meeting 
the  first  of  these  great  advances  was  made,  which 
185 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

have  since  culminated  in  the  result  that  the  Asso- 
ciation is  now,  from  the  number  and  character  of 
its  members,  a  power  in  the  State,  and  the  largest 
professional  brotherhood  that  exists.  Stokes  was 
President  on  this  occasion,  and  in  his  inaugural 
address  he  pointed  out  its  objects,  the  effects  of 
its  operation  not  only  as  a  scientific  body,  but  as  a 
means  of  promoting  friendly  feelings  by  the  personal 
interchanges  of  kindly  offices,  "  a  means  of  getting 
rid  of  prejudices,  and  of  neutralising  those  corporate 
jealousies,  so  long  the  bane  of  our  profession." 
Thus  they  not  merely  hoped,  but  foresaw  that  the 
time  would  come  when  that  profession  would  be 
bound  together  as  a  united  body,  looking  ever 
upwards,  and  strong  in  mutual  respect  and  mutual 
confidences.  The  topic  mainly  dealt  with  in  this 
address  was  that  which  had  filled  his  thoughts  for 
the  last  four  years,  and  which  we  have  already 
enlarged  on  at  page  171 — that  is,  State  Medicine. 
The  establishment  of  a  Diploma  in  State  Medicine 
in  the  University  of  Dublin  was  a  scheme  he  had 
long  striven  to  promote,  the  achievement  of  which 
may  be  held  to  be  one  of  the  greatest  in  his  life 
as  man.  The  example  thus  shown  was  quickly 
followed  by  the  sister  Universities  of  Oxford  and 
186 


BRITISH   MEDICAL   ASSOCIATION 

Cambridge.  He  also  dwelt  on  the  importance  of  a 
large  and  liberal  education  as  the  best  preparation 
for  special  training,  on  the  desirability  of  investi- 
gating the  laws  of  epidemics,  and  the  placing  of 
therapeutics  on  a  more  scientific  basis.  He  con- 
cluded the  address  with  the  following  words  : — 

"  The  history  of  Ireland  is  a  singular  one.  More 
than  a  thousand  years  ago  she  was  a  centre  of 
Christianity  in  Western  Europe.  Often  defeated, 
though  not  conquered  by  the  Northman,  torn  by 
internecine  war  and  exhausted  by  fruitless  contests 
with  England,  she  is  at  last  united  with  her ;  and 
the  two  countries  are  now  beginning  to  know  one 
another  better,  and  to  excuse  or  to  forget  what 
was  wrong  on  either  side,  and  to  know  and  esti- 
mate that  which  was  right.  According  to  the  use 
that  was  made  of  them,  and  according  to  the 
amount  of  truth  or  untruth  that  may  be  in  them, 
the  traditions  of  the  past  may  be  fruitful  in  evil  or 
in  good.  But  with  the  advance  of  education,  of 
intelligence,  and  above  all  of  intercommunication, 
old  ignorances,  old  prejudices,  old  memories  of 
wrong  and  forgetfulness  of  right,  will  fade  away. 
This  visit  will  hasten  the  time  when  the  crown  of 
our  loved  Sovereign  will  surround  and  embrace  in  its 
187 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

golden  circle  an  united  and  happy  people.  That 
day  is  coming  ;  and  therefore  it  is  clear  that  this 
meeting  has  a  national  as  well  as  a  scientific  im- 
portance which  recommends  it  to  all  loyal  and  all 
right-thinking  men." 

This  meeting  of  the  Association  will  always  be 
regarded  as  one  of  the  most  memorable  in  its  annals, 
not  only  from  the  number  of  illustrious  men  who 
attended  it — Syme,  Simpson,  A  eland,  Hughes  Bennett, 
Teale,  Sibson,  Rumsey,  Lockhart  Clarke,  Lister, 
Spencer  Wells,  Thompson,  and  many  others — but 
also  from  the  exceptionally  brilliant  addresses  in 
medicine  and  surgery  that  were  delivered  by  Sir 
Dominic  Corrigan  and  Professor  R.  W.  Smith. 
The  halls  of  Trinity  College  "  rarely  heard  orations 
more  weighty,  more  elevated  in  tone  or  more 
framed  in  noble  aspirations."  The  writer  here 
quoted  (British  Medical  Journal,  August  17,  1867) 
further  remarks  in  reference  to  Professor  Smith's 
address,  that  it  was  delivered  "  with  weighty,  thought- 
ful and  deep-toned  fervour,  fraught  with  a  generous 
earnestness  of  mind,  a  love  of  the  ancient  worthies 
of  our  literature,  a  critical  and  observant  apprecia- 
tion of  clinical  facts,  and  above  all  a  high  canon 
of  ethical  judgment  which  aroused  the  learned  and 
188 


numerous  auditors  to  a  degree  of  enthusiasm  which 
is  rarely  witnessed,  and  which  was  expressed  not 
only  in  frequent  and  hearty  applause,  but  in  the 
rapt,  deepening  attention  with  which  every  sentence 
was  followed,  and  the  climax  of  enthusiastic  cheering 
with  which  the  peroration  of  the  orator  was  greeted." 

Another  most  important  and  remarkable  address 
delivered  at  this  meeting  was  that  of  Dr.  Rumsey 
on  preventive  medicine.  It  may,  in  truth,  be 
stated  that  one  of  the  greatest  and  most  far-reaching 
results  of  the  meeting  was  the  impulse  given  in  this 
address  to  the  study  of  that  branch  of  medical 
science,  in  which  we  have  shown  that  Stokes  took 
so  deep  and  absorbing  an  interest. 

At  the  conclusion  of  this  meeting  Stokes  joined 
his  friend  the  Earl  of  Dunraven  and  his  party  in  an 
archaeological  tour  through  Galway,  Sligo,  and 
Mayo,  visiting  the  islands  along  the  coast.  From 
the  date  of  Petrie's  death  he  had  encouraged  Lord 
Dunraven  to  complete  the  work  too  long  left  un- 
finished, on  Irish  Ecclesiastical  Architecture.1  In  a 
letter  to  his  eldest  son  2  Stokes  observes  : — 

1  This  was  not  published  in  Lord    Dunraven's    lifetime.      He  left 
the  completion  of   it  to  Miss  Margaret  Stokes,  who  brought  out  the 
work  in   1875. 

2  Whitley  Stokes,  LL.D.,  D.C.L.  Oxon,  C.S.I.E. 

189  N 


WILLIAM  STOKES 

"We  spent  nine  days  in  the  island  of  Arran.  I 
found  it  very  hard  work,  from  early  morning  till 
night  trudging  over  the  limestone  rocks  and  throw- 
ing down  dry  stone  walls  every  hundred  yards.  But 
we  have  done  great  work,  and  we  have  measured, 
drawn,  and  photographed  almost  every  object  of 
interest  in  the  three  islands.  I  wish  you  had  seen 
the  group  of  natives  that  surrounded  us  in  the  great 
pagan  fort  on  the  middle  island  of  Arran  ;  nearly  a 
hundred  women  and  girls,  all  in  their  bright  red 
dresses,  sitting  in  a  great  circle  round  us,  some  at 
the  base  and  some  at  the  top  of  the  great  wall. 
Then  we  made  a  young  man  sing  to  us,  and  it  was 
delightful  to  see  how  all  the  people  enjoyed  the 
song — an  interminable  Irish  chant,  but  very  beauti- 
ful in  its  way.  We  are  now  waiting  here  at  Letter- 
frack  for  the  sea  to  go  down,  to  allow  us  to  land 
on  High  Island,  where  you  have  to  jump  on  to  the 
cliff  with  the  rise  of  the  wave.  How  our  photo- 
graphic apparatus  is  to  be  got  on  shore,  seems  a 
puzzle." 

The   following   year,   on    his   wife's    account,   he 

accepted    the   kind   offer   of  Lord    Dunraven,   who 

lent  him  his   cottage  on  the  island  of  Garinish,  in 

Kenmare  Bay,  where  he  trusted   that   in    the  mild 

190 


ARCHAEOLOGICAL  TOUR 

climate  of  the  South  of  Ireland  she  might  find  relief 
from  the  suffering  caused  by  the  pulmonary  malady 
from  which  for  so  long  a  time  she  had  been  suffering. 
Here  he  followed  her  in  the  autumn,  and,  joined  by 
Lord  Dunraven  and  Mr.  Mercer,  they  proceeded 
to  examine  and  photograph  the  antiquities  of  Kerry 
as  they  had  done  those  of  Galway,  Mayo,  and  Sligo 
the  year  before.  A  detailed  account  of  the  places 
visited  on  this  occasion  is  given  in  Lord  Dunraven's 
"Notes  on  Irish  Architecture"  (pp.  1-92). 

On  another  occasion,  while  engaged  during  one 
of  his  annual  holiday  excursions,  in  investigating  the 
antiquities  of  the  South  of  Ireland,  he  witnessed  a 
sunset  of  exceptional  beauty  from  Sybil  Head.  The 
following  picture  of  which,  given  in  a  letter  to 
Carleton,  the  Irish  novelist,  is  an  example  of  his 
descriptive  power  :  "  Over  the  surface  of  the  great 
Atlantic,  and  at  least  a  thousand  feet  beneath  where 
we  stood,  lay  a  boundless  extent  of  mist  or  vapour, 
which,  before  it  became  tinged  by  the  sun's  rays, 
had  assumed  the  appearance  of  an  open  champaign 
country,  divided,  as  it  were,  into  large  fields,  spacious 
highways,  broad  pastoral  plains,  and  extensive 
meadows.  Gradually,  however,  this  scene  changed, 
and  as  the  sun  began  to  sink  in  the  far  distance, 
191 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

his  sloping  beams  caught  the  upper  portions  of  this 
beautiful  vapour,  and  coloured  them  with  an  exqui- 
site variety  of  the  richest  hues,  each  portion  assuming 
a  different  tinge,  in  consequence  of  its  position  with 
regard  to  the  sun.  The  effect  of  these  higher  parts, 
thus  lit  up  into  glowing  and  varied  splendour,  as 
contrasted  with  the  calm,  broad  reaches  of  wonder- 
ful country  which  lay  under  them,  was  inconceiv- 
ably fine.  Thus  elevated,  they  looked  like  towers 
of  gold  and  precious  stones,  shining  under  the 
evening  sun,  in  some  enchanted  land. 

"  A  more  wonderful  effect  was  still  to  come.  As 
the  sun  went  down  into  the  sea  the  whole  ex- 
panse by  degrees  kindled  into  one  great  flood  of 
prismatic  light,  glowing  in  the  richest  and  most 
gorgeous  colours,  all  of  which  now  blazed  with 
the  deep  effulgence  of  what  seemed  his  last 
glow. 

"  Then  a  third  change  came  on  the  scene. 

"  All  at  once  the  sun's  disc  dipped  into  the  ocean, 
where  it  had  nearly  disappeared,  leaving  on  this  cloud 
scenery,  a  golden  haze,  rich,  warm,  and  transparent. 
But  this  was  illusion,  for  the  sun,  which  had  only 
set  in  a  deceptive  horizon,  reappeared  in  a  few 
moments,  thus  literally  seeming  to  rise  again.  He 
192 


ARCHAEOLOGICAL   TOUR 

now  shone  for  a  brief  period  in  mild  and  cloudless 
effulgence. 

"  The  cliff  from  which  we  contemplated  this 
scene  was  covered  with  lichens  and  mosses  of  various 
colours.  It  stood  out  mighty  and  stupendous,  facing 
the  crimson  sun,  whose  deep  empurpled  light  touched 
the  whole  magnificent  mass  with  colour.  Then  the 
sun  finally  sank,  and  two  eagles  shot  out  far  below  us 
from  the  side  of  the  cliff,  and  rose  circling  and 
wheeling  round  till  they  disappeared  in  the  dark- 
ness. The  rich  colour  faded  away,  the  deep-tinted 
fires  grew  fainter  and  fainter,  the  ideal  world  vanished, 
darkness  succeeded,  the  winds,  as  it  were,  leaped  into 
motion,  the  mighty  waters  began  to  heave,  and  there 
remained  before  us  nothing  but  the  desert  bosom  of 
the  dark  Atlantic." 

It  has  been  already  mentioned  that  outside  his  pro- 
fessional pursuits  there  was  nothing  that  was  a  greater 
source  of  interest  or  pleasure  to  Stokes  than  the  study 
of  archaeology.  Many  of  his  well-earned  vacations 
were  spent  visiting,  in  company  of  one  or  more  of  his 
friends,  some  of  the  Early  Christian  or  pre-Christian 
structures  which  are  to  be  found  in  such  numbers  in 
some  of  the  remoter  districts  of  Ireland.  On  one  of 
these  annual  holidays  in  the  Co.  Kerry,  being  anxious 

'93 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

to  make  an  expedition  into  a  wild,  mountainous  region, 
four  ponies  were  hired  for  the  party  from  a  farmer 
living  in  a  village  close  to  where  Stokes  was  residing. 
When  the  day  arrived  on  which  they  purposed  making 
the  excursion,  no  ponies  were  forthcoming,  and  on 
inquiries  being  made  at  the  village  to  ascertain  the 
reason  of  this,  the  man  from  whom  the  ponies  had 
been  hired,  observed  :  "  Ach  !  yer  honour,  an 
onconvanient  auld  divil  died  here  yesterday,  and  all 
the  ponies  is  gone  to  the  funeral  !  " 

Apropos  of  funerals,  it  was  related  by  Stokes  that  a 
man  observed  of  a  friend  of  his  who  had  got  his  own 
coffin  made,  "  I  think  it  was  very  presumptuous  of 
him  to  do  such  a  thing."  "  How  so  ?"  said  the  other. 
"  Because,"  he  replied,  "  how  could  he  know  that 
he'd  ever  live  to  make  use  of  it !  " 

Another  subject  that  always  interested  Stokes  on 
these  expeditions  was  learning  some  of  the  popular 
remedies  on  which  the  peasantry  had  chief  reliance  in 
the  treatment  of  various  maladies.  Some  of  them  are 
curious  if  not  efficient. 

The  following  account  of  a  method  of  treatment  for 

epilepsy  will  be   regarded  as   an  interesting,  though 

somewhat  heroic  addition  to  our  therapeutic  resources 

for    that    malady,   and    at    one    time    was    said    to 

194 


POPULAR   REMEDIES 

be  of  high  repute  in  the  southern  part  of  the  Co. 
Kerry. 

Mr.  Bland,  of  Derriquin  Castle,  met  one  of  his 
tenants,  "  Well  John,"  said  he,  "  how  is  the  boy  ? " 

"He's  well!  sir." 

"  How  did  you  cure  him  ? " 

"  I  deluded  him  to  your  honour's  bog." 

"  And  what  did  you  do  to  him  there  ? " 

"  I  drownded  him  your  honour." 

"  How  was  that  ?  " 

"  I  brought  him  to  the  edge  of  your  honour's  bog- 
hole  and  threw  him  in  suddint,  and  lept  down  upon 
him,  and  held  him  under  the  water  till  the  last  bubble 
was  out  of  him,  and  he  never  since  had  a  return  of  the 
complaint,  glory  be  to  God  !  " 


'95 


XI 


MEETING  AT  OXFORD — PRESIDENCY  OF  THE  ROYAL 
IRISH  ACADEMY 

THE  year  following  the  Dublin  meeting  of  the 
Association  the  University  of  Oxford  followed 
the  example  set  them  by  the  sister  University  in 
Ireland,  and  received  the  Association  at  its  annual 
meeting.  Sir  Henry  Acland,  Bart,  (then  Dr. 
Acland),  presided,  with  his  wonted  dignity,  courtesy, 
and  geniality. 

The  following  valedictory  address  was  delivered  by 
Stokes,  the  outgoing  President,  on  that  occasion  : — 

"  To  be  chosen  to  preside  over  a  society  of  three 
thousand  educated  gentlemen,  all  zealous  for  the 
advancement  of  human  knowledge,  many  of  them 
distinguished  in  the  paths  of  literature  and  science,  and 
not  a  few  of  them  practical  doers  of  Christ's  work 
upon  earth,  is  a  distinction  of  which  any  man  might 
196 


MEETING  AT  OXFORD 

be  proud,  and  for  which  any  man  should  be  thankful. 
For,  though  the  place  of  meeting  influences  the 
selection  of  President,  the  character  of  him  who  is  to 
preside  influences,  at  least  among  other  things,  the 
choice  of  place  of  meeting.  Here,  for  the  second 
time,  you  meet  in  Oxford,  the  heart  of  England, 
whose  history  is  that  of  the  country,  the  free,  the 
enlightened,  the  religious — the  conqueror  in  the  arts 
of  peace  and  war. 

"  Let  me,  before  bidding  you  farewell,  say  a  few 
words  as  to  the  future  of  this  Society — now  the  most 
numerous  body  working  for  the  benefit  of  science  in 
the  world,  and  which  will  doubtless  attain  to  larger 
dimensions.  So  far,  we  have  been  an  united  body, 
which  is  to  be  attributed  to  our  federal  constitution, 
with  independent  local  action,  and  a  representative  and 
imperial  executive.  How  long  this  strength-giving 
union  may  last,  no  man  can  predict ;  nor,  on  the  other 
hand,  can  any  man  say  to  what  an  amount  of  influence 
for  good  this  Association  may  attain.  But  it  is  plain 
that  its  durability  and  usefulness  will  depend  on  its 
being  made  the  instrument  for  public  good,  rather 
than  the  machinery  to  advance  the  immediate  worldly 
interests  of  the  profession.  And  every  one  of  us  must 
lay  it  to  heart,  that  a  great  issue  rests  within  his  hands. 
197 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

The  man  among  us,  who,  by  his  unselfish  labour,  adds 
one  useful  fact  to  the  storehouse  of  medical  knowledge, 
does  more  to  advance  its  material  interests,  than  if  he 
had  spent  a  life  in  the  pursuit  of  medical  politics.  Far  be 
it  for  me  to  say  that  there  are  not  great  wrongs  to  be 
redressed.  It  is  impossible,  in  any  country,  that  evils 
of  custom  and  of  administration,  private  wrongs, 
corporate  shortcomings,  hard  dealings,  unfair  com- 
petition, and  scanty  remuneration  for  public  and 
private  services,  should  not  occur.  But  these 
evils  being  admitted  how  are  they  to  be  lessened, 
if  not  removed  ?  Is  it  by  public  agitation  and 
remonstrance  addressed  to  deaf  or  unwilling  ears  ? 
Is  it  by  the  demand  for  class  legislation  ?  or  is  it,  by 
the  efforts  of  one  and  all,  to  place  medicine  in  the 
hierarchy  of  the  sciences — in  the  vanguard  of  human 
progress  ;  eliminating  every  influence  that  can  lower 
it,  every  day  more  and  more  developing  the  pro- 
fessional principle,  while  we  foster  all  things  that 
relate  to  its  moral,  literary,  and  scientific  character  ? 
When  this  becomes  our  rule  of  action,  then  begins  the 
real  reform  of  all  those  things  at  which  we  fret  and 
chafe.  Then  will  medicine  have  its  due  weight  in  the 
councils  of  the  country.  There  is  no  royal  road  to 
this  consummation.  On  the  one  hand,  the  liberal 
198 


ADDRESS   AT  OXFORD 

education  of  the  public  must  advance,  and  the  intro- 
duction of  the  physical  sciences  in  the  arts  courses  of 
the  Universities  must  give  the  death-blow  to  em- 
piricism ;  and,  on  the  other,  the  education  of  ourselves 
must  extend  its  foundations,  and  we  should  trust  far 
less  to  the  special,  than  to  the  general  training  of  the 
mind.  When  medicine  is  in  a  position  to  command 
respect,  be  sure  that  its  reward  will  be  proportionally 
increased,  and  its  status  elevated.  In  the  history  of 
the  human  race,  three  objects  of  man's  solicitude  may 
be  indicated  :  first,  his  future  state  ;  next,  his  worldly 
interests  ;  and  lastly,  his  health.  And  so  the  pro- 
fessions which  deal  with  these  considerations  have 
been  relatively  placed  :  first,  that  of  divinity  ;  next, 
that  of  law  or  government  ;  and,  as  man  loves  gold 
more  than  life,  the  last  is  medicine.  But,  with  the 
progress  of  society,  a  juster  balance  will  obtain, 
conditionally  that  we  work  in  the  right  direction, 
and  make  ourselves  worthy  to  take  a  share  in  its 
government,  not  by  coercive  curricula  of  education, 
not  by  overloaded  examinations  in  special  knowledge, 
which  are,  in  comparison  to  a  large  mental  training, 
almost  valueless  ;  but  by  seeing  to  the  moral  and 
religious  cultivation,  and  the  general  intellectual 
advancement  of  the  student.  Doubtless,  such  a 
199 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

revolution,  which,  could  men  only  read  the  signs  of 
the  times,  is  slowly  though  surely  coming,  will  lessen 
the  number  of  a  certain  order  of  candidates  for  license 
to  practise.  Doubtless,  also,  while  the  funds  of  special 
corporations  will  be  diminished,  University  education 
will  be  extended  ;  and  the  whole  character  of  medi- 
cine will  be  changed,  greatly  to  the  advantage  of 
its  social  position  in  the  country,  and  the  interests 
of  science  and  the  public  at  large. 

"  These  principles  have,  from  the  first,  influenced 
the  General  Medical  Council,  whose  efforts  have  been 
so  much  directed  to  the  promotion  of  general  educa- 
tion, and  who,  while  administering  an  imperfect  law 
to  the  best  of  their  ability,  and  persevering  in  what 
they  believe  to  be  the  right  course,  have  been  exposed 
to  depreciating  observations.  As  every  one  knows, 
the  Council  has  no  direct  coercive  powers  in  the 
matter  of  education,  and  I  believe  that,  at  least  as  yet, 
it  is  better  that  it  should  not  have  such  powers  ;  but  I 
know  that  I  speak  the  sentiments  of  the  existing 
members  of  that  body,  whether  its  constitution  be,  or 
be  not  changed,  when  I  say  that  they  look  to  the 
profession  at  large  for  moral  support  and  for  counsel. 

"  Our  being  invited  to  this  metropolis  of  ancient  and 
modern  British  thought,  which,  with  its  sister  Univer- 
200 


ADDRESS  AT  OXFORD 

sities  of  Cambridge  and  of  Dublin,  has  so  effectually 
subserved  the  real  interests  of  medicine,  is  a  graceful 
compliment  to  the  Association,  and  an  evidence  that 
this  great  University  will  still  more  foster  the  cause 
of  medical  science. 

"  Putting  aside  the  success  of  your  labours  at 
Dublin,  in  a  scientific  point  of  view,  your  meeting  of 
last  year  deserves  a  long  remembrance.  It  was  the 
first  occasion  on  which  the  members  of  all  ranks  of 
British  and  Irish  professional  men  met  to  know  one 
another,  to  unite  in  the  common  cause  of  the  advance- 
ment of  knowledge,  and  to  learn,  on  a  great  scale,  how 
the  mutual  cultivation  of  science  will  efface  national 
prejudices  ;  for  it  is  only  in  this  way  that  those 
national  dislikes  and  distrustings  which  become 
hereditary  feelings,  transmitted  from  one  generation 
to  another,  which  separate  peoples  and  delay  the 
peaceful  federation  of  the  world,  can  ever  be 
removed. 

"  I  now  respectfully  and  gratefully  bid  you  farewell, 
and  may  all  good  things  be  yours." 

The  inaugural  address  by  the  new  President,  Sir 
Henry  Acland,  on  the  Medicine  of  Modern  Times, 
was  a  faithful  reflex  of  his  own  character  and  attain- 
ments. Learned,  refined,  eloquent,  and  full  of  noble 
201 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

aspiration  and  philosophic  thought,  it  fully  justified 
the  cordial  acknowledgments  that  were  given  to  the 
President  at  the  end  of  the  meeting,  and  the 
enthusiastic  endorsement  of  Stokes'  remarks  in 
reference  to  his  qualities  as  a  man  and  a  physician — 
qualities  which  had  endeared  him  to  all  who  knew 
him,  and  made  them  appreciate,  as  the  speaker  did, 
the  gift  of  his  friendship. 

Seldom  have  nobler  addresses  been  delivered  than 
those  on  this  memorable  occasion.  That  on  physio- 
logy by  Professor  Rolleston  was  a  fitting  inauguration 
of  the  work  of  the  newly-formed  Physiological 
Section.  "  An  address  at  once  so  powerful  and  so 
charming,"  as  was  said  of  it  by  Professor  Humphry. 

The  philosophic  address  on  Medicine  by  Sir 
William  (then  Dr.)  Gull,  was  listened  to  with 
rapt  attention  and  mingled  admiration  and  pleasure. 
It  was,  in  truth,  as  Sir  James  Paget  said  of  it,  a 
"  brilliant  essay."  Mention  may  also  be  made  of 
the  mirth-provoking  discourse  of  Dr.  Haughton,  of 
Dublin,  on  the  relation  of  food  to  force.  This  was 
found  by  the  Association  to  be  alike  original  and 
amusing. 

In  proposing  a  vote  of  thanks  to  Stokes  for  his 
services  as  President,  Sir  James  Paget,  who  seconded 
202 


MEETING  AT   OXFORD 

the  proposition  which  was    proposed   by  Dr.  Sibson, 
observed  that  he  did  so  with  what   with  some  men 
were  the  strongest  feelings  of  their  nature — envy  and 
regret.     He  had  not  been  able  to  be  present  at  the 
splendid  meeting  last  year  at  Dublin,  and  be  one  of 
those  who  shared  there  in  what  he  might  call  the  jovial 
hospitality  afforded  to  the  Association.     But  he  knew 
enough  of  the  late  President  to  say  that  in  Counsel  he 
was  all  that  was  moderate  and  wise  ;  learned  in  science, 
upright  as  a  man    to  men  ;  and  in  social  life  genial 
and  kind.     In  all  these  points  the  late  president  set 
those  over  whom    he  presided   an  example,  and  this 
example  and  the  temper  he  had  shown  would  dwell 
in  the  minds  of  the  members  for  many  years  to  come. 
In    the    autumn  of  1873   tne  WI"iter  delivered  an 
inaugural  address  at  the  Royal  College  of  Surgeons 
introductory  to  the  Session  1873—4.     Before  doing  so, 
he  sent  a  short  precis  of  it  to  Stokes,  who  was  then  in 
London    enjoying   a  short    holiday.      The  following 
letter  was  received  in  reference  to  the  address  : — 

"  GILBERT  STREET,  LONDON, 

"November  2,  1873. 

"  MY    DEAR   WILL, — I    feel   that   I  should   have 
been  home  before  this  and  hope  to  reach  Dublin  on 
203 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

Friday  morning.  I  feel  much  better  in  many  ways, 
and  we  have  been  very  happy  with  Harriet  and 
Griffith.^ 

"  I  like  your  programme  of  the  lecture  very  much. 
That  surgery  has  advanced  medicine  is  true  so  far 
as  it  deals  so  largely  with  physical  conditions,  and  it 
has  been  its  safeguard  against  quackery,  for  no  impor- 
tant surgical  proceeding  can  be  based  upon  it,  at  least, 
in  the  public  mind.  Still,  it  may  be  argued  that  medi- 
cine has  even  more  advanced  surgery,  and  the  best 
surgeon  is  not  the  man  who  is  the  best  operator,  but 
rather  he  who  knows  best  the  laws  of  constitutional 
disease.  I  rather  think  that  to  the  physiologist  and 
pathologist  are  owing  the  development  of  physical 
diagnosis,  the  stethoscope,  laryngoscope,  ophthalmos- 
cope, endoscope,  galvanometer,  sphygmograph,  and  so 
on.  The  progress  of  medicine  has  helped  surgery  and 
vice  versa. 

"  The  shortcomings  of  the  more  modern  school 
of  so-called  scientific  medicine  in  the  advance  of 
chemistry  and  microscopic  anatomy,  are  that  its 
followers  have  become  very  vain,  and  in  seeking  to 
explain  the  laws  of  disease,  dwell  more  on  the 
physical  than  on  the  vital  state,  on  the  dead  rather 

1  His  daughter  and  son-in-law  His  Honour  Judge  Downes  Griffith. 
204 


PRESIDENCY  ROYAL  IRISH-  ACADEMY 

than  the  living  organism.  They  thus  neglect,  or 
ignore  the  grand  old  records  of  medicine,  and  of 
surgery  also,  which  belong  to  times  when  the  micro- 
scope or  animal  chemistry  were  hardly  known. 

"  As  to  hospitalism,  by  which  I  presume  you  mean 
the  condition  of  bad  health  engendered  in  our  wards, 
does  it  not  greatly  arise  from  want  of  ventilation  and 
cleanliness  ?  I  wish  you  saw  the  Radcliffe  Infirmary 
at  Oxford,  in  its  worst  state. 

"  Don't  be  afraid  about  your  lecture.  In  reading 
it  take  care  not  to  read  too  fast,  and  as  much  as 
you  can,  look  your  audience  in  the  face.  Love  to 
dear  Elizabeth. 

"  Ever  yours, 

"  WILLIAM  STOKES." 

On  March  17, 1874,  William  Stokes  was  nominated 
to  the  Presidency  of  the  Royal  Irish  Academy.  It 
was  a  new  departure  for  the  members  of  that  body, 
which  is  mainly  representative  of  literature  and 
abstract  science,  to  choose  a  physician  as  their  head, 
but  it  was  felt  that  the  time  had  now  come  when 
medicine  had  attained  such  a  position,  through  the 
labours  of  Stokes  and  others,  in  the  estimation  of 
literary  and  scientific  men  that  the  election  of  the 
205  ° 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

Regius  Professor  of  that  art  in  Trinity  College 
would  be  welcomed  by  the  majority.  It  was  re- 
marked, besides,  by  the  outgoing  President,  that  he 
possessed  in  a  special  degree  one  quality  which  was 
sure  to  confer  great  benefit  on  any  educational  body, 
namely,  the  power  of  imparting  his  own  enthusiasm 
in  the  pursuit  of  knowledge  to  those  associated  with 
him  in  work,  and  that  the  Academy  was  sure  to  main- 
tain its  independence  under  such  a  guide.  With  him 
the  love  of  truth  came  first ;  his  native  land  and  its 
honour  next,  before  every  other  consideration."  In  the 
December  of  the  same  year,  he  delivered  his  Presi- 
dential address  before  a  crowded  assembly.  In  this  he 
gave  evidence  of  the  truth  of  .Dr.  Ingram's  remark  as 
to  his  special  fitness  for  the  place,  "  by  the  breadth  of 
views,  and  the  respect  for  every  form  of  useful  intel- 
lectual effort,  which  so  remarkably  characterised  him." 
He  takes  in  review  the  prospects  of  the  body  giving  a 
retrospective  and  prospective  sketch  of  its  career.  He 
enters  into  the  questions  of  archaeology,  and  polite 
literature,  and  of  science,  and  enlarges  on  the  present 
condition  of  the  science  of  biology.  The  address 
closes  with  these  words  : — 

"  The  conservation  of  energy,  directive  though  not 
creative,  in  the  living   organised   structure,  and  the 
206 


ROYAL   IRISH   ACADEMY— ADDRESS 

chemical  affinities  in  that  which  is  unorganised,  show, 
it  might  be  held,  that  a  lower  mode  of  life  pervades 
every  existing  being ;  but  we  believe  that  in  God's 
own  time,  that  higher  life  which  shows  itself  in  pro- 
gressive organisation,  and  is  terminable,  will  have  a 
different  existence,  at  least,  as  regards  the  human 
being,  one  freed  from  material  associations,  freed  from 
physical  influences  and  from  moral  shortcomings. 

"  It  is  believed  by  thoughtful  men  that  matter 
is  indestructible.  May  we  not  find  that  as  it  has,  in 
time,  subserved  the  physical,  so  in  Eternity  it  will, 
when  spiritualised,  subserve  the  moral  law,  and  thus 
an  undying  result  will  be  evolved. 

"It  has  been  written  that  we  'see  as  through  a 
glass  darkly  ; '  but  are  there  not  grounds  for  the  belief 
that  such  will  not  ever  be  the  case  ?  May  we  not 
believe  that  every  discovery  in  development,  in  micro- 
scopical structure,  in  chemical  composition,  and  in 
electrical  and  optical  character,  will  be,  when  related 
to  the  property  of  life,  a  fuller  ray  of  the  burning 
lustre  by  which  we  approach  the  footstool  of  that 
throne  where  we  shall  be  permitted  nearer  and  nearer 
to  contemplate  the  power  and  the  ineffable  light  of 
Him  from  whom  comes  all  life." 


207 


XII 


FAILING  HEALTH — STATUE  BY  FOLEY — POWER  AS 
A  TEACHER  —  PRUSSIAN  ORDER,  "  POUR  LE 
MERITE  " 

FAILING  health  did  not  permit  Stokes  to  hold 
the  Presidentship  of  the  Academy  for  more 
than  two  years  from  the  date  of  the  delivery  of  his 
inaugural  address,  but  in  this  space  of  time  he  guided 
it  through  a  period  of  no  small  difficulty  and  peril. 
Those  of  its  officers  who  were  in  constant  communi- 
cation with  him  at  the  time  were  deeply  impressed  by 
his  earnest  zeal  for  the  honour  and  welfare  of  their 
body,  and  have  borne  testimony  to  the  profound 
interest  often  amounting  to  painful  anxiety,  with 
which  he  followed  everything  which  seemed  likely 
to  affect  its  fortunes,  and  to  the  sound  judgment 
with  which  he  early  perceived  what  might  safely  be 
accepted,  and  what  ought  never  to  be  conceded. 

In  this  year  (1874)  Stokes  received  the  high  distinc- 
208 


RECEIVES   DEGREE  LL.D. 

tion  of  the  degree  of  LL.D.  (hon.  causa]  from  the 
University  of  Cambridge.  When  the  names  are 
enumerated  of  those  on  whom  this  honour  was  con- 
ferred at  the  same  time  it  will  be  seen  that  among  the 
recipients  were  some  of  Stokes'  most  brilliant  contem- 
poraries. These  were  :  Sir  Alexander  Cockburn, 
Bart.,  the  Lord  Chief  Justice  ;  Sir  Bartle  Frere, 
G.C.S.I.,  K.C.B.;  Sir  William  Stirling  Maxwell, 
Bart.,  M.P.;  Sir  Charles  Lyell,  Bart.,  F.R.S.  ;  Sir 
James  Paget,  Bart.,  F.R.S. ;  Sir  Garnet  (now  Viscount) 
Wolseley,  G.C.M.G.,  K.C.B.;  the  Hon.  Robert 
Winthrop  ;  Sir  George  Gilbert  Scott,  R.A. ;  George 
Salmon,  D.D.;  Edward  Freeman,  M.A.,  D.C.L. ; 
Nybain  Leverrier ;  Joseph  G.  Greenwood;  George 
Bentham,  F.R.S.  ;  William  Lassell,  F.R.S.  ;  James 
Russell  Lowell.  In  presenting  Stokes  for  the  Honorary 
Degree  to  the  Chancellor  of  the  University,  the 
Public  Orator,  Professor  Jebb,  M.P.,  delivered  the 
following  speech  :  "  Ut  singulis  locis,  privatis  domibus 
salutarem  ac  poene  maiorem  quam  est  hominis  opem 
potest  afferre  felix  ilia  medicinae  ars,  ita  munus  interdum 
sibi  vindicat  locorum  spatiis  universum,  benevolentiae 
complexu  publicum.  Sunt  quaedam  communes  sani- 
tatis  leges,  quae  ut  intelligantur  non  unius  tantum 
foci,  non  regionis,  sed  populi  totius  interest.  Perfe- 
209 


WILLIAM  STOKES 

cerunt  huius  viri  labor,  assiduitas,  ingenium,  doctrina 
ut  quas  vitales  auras  in  aegroto  hoc  vel  illo  lenibus 
remediis  faciliores  facit,  has  totae  urbes,  pestem  vel 
patientes  vel  passurae,  veneno  liberatas  hauriant. 
Magnas  unusquisque  mortalium  debet  gratias  ei  qui 
lentae  illi  pulmonum  tabi  succurrit  ;  ampliore  tamen 
beneficio  totum  terrarum  orbem  is  affecit,  qui  vicos, 
qui  oppida,  qui  nationes  pestilentiam  propulsare  docuit. 
Regium  nuper  Medicinae  Professorem,  ne  ceteros 
enumerem  honores,  Regii  Professoris  filium,  et  suo  et 
patris  et  Academiae  Dubliniensis  nomine  jubemus — 
id  quod  ipse  tot  aegros  iussit — salvere.  Duco  ad  vos 
Wilelmum  Stokes."  * 

At  this  time  the  statue  of  Stokes,  which  now  stands 
in  the  hall  of  the  College  of  Physicians,  was  executed 
by  Foley.  This  artist  himself  thought  it  one  of  his 
best  portrait  statues,  and  would  say,  "  I  think  I  have 
caught  the  expression  of  the  mouth,  it  was  no  easy 
task,  to  give  that  mouth  !  " 

Of  this  statue  it  has  been  well  observed  that  the 
work  is  the  expression  in  marble  of  a  spirit,  mournful 
indeed,  but  through  thought  and  courage,  serene.  A 
spirit  that  has  attained  a  massive  wisdom  and  almost  a 

1  Speeches    delivered    by  the    Public    Orator   in   the    Senate    House, 
Cambridge,  June   16,   1874. 

210 


STATUE   BY   FOLEY 

gnomic  calm,  yet  can  be  still  enkindled  from  within 
and  shake  off  the  sense  of  the  weight  and  mystery  of 
life  and  death,  of  sin  and  sorrow  that  threatens  to 
o'erwhelm  it.  With  bowed  head,  and  bending  form, 
and  folded  hands,  he  is  in  the  attitude  of  one  who  in 
utter  stillness  ponders  intensely  upon  things  unseen. 

"  Believing  that  for  every  mystery 
For  all  the  death,  the  darkness  and  the  curse 
Of  this  dim  universe 
Needs  a  solution  full  of  love  must  be."  x 

At  the  unveiling  of  the  statue  (March  16,  1876), 
which  ceremony  was  performed  by  His  Grace  the 
Duke  of  Leinster,  and  which  was  largely  attended 
by  many  leading  citizens  of  Dublin,  distinguished 
members  of  the  University  and  of  the  Royal  College 
of  Physicians  and  Surgeons,  two  remarkable  speeches 
were  delivered.  One  was  that  of  Stokes'  distin- 
guished colleague  and  former  pupil,  Dr.  Alfred 
Hudson,  who,  in  a  few  well-chosen  words,  gave  a 
brief  but  accurate  epitome  of  Stokes'  researches  and 
professional  work,  and  of  how  he  had  striven 
successfully  to  elevate  the  profession  to  which  he 
had  devoted  his  life's  work. 

Mr.  Edward  Hamilton,  then  President  of  the 
Royal  College  of  Surgeons,  also  spoke  on  this 

1  See  Poems  by  Archbishop  Trench,  p.  102.     London,  1874. 
211 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

occasion  with  his  usual  good  feeling  and  warmth 
of  heart.  He  observed  : — 

"I  must  give  expression  to  the  extreme  gratifi- 
cation it  affords  me  that  the  official  position  •  I 
occupy  has  given  me  the  very  great  privilege  of 
taking  part  in  this  interesting,  pleasing,  and,  I 
would  add,  most  important  ceremony  —  pleasing, 
because  we  are  called  upon  to  do  honour  to 
a  distinguished  Irishman  ;  important,  because  I 
believe  we  this  day  commemorate  a  great  and 
important  epoch  in  Irish  medicine.  As  the  repre- 
sentative of  your  sister  College,  permit  me  to 
express  an  opinion,  which  I  am  sure  is  shared 
by  every  one  throughout  the  length  and  breadth 
of  the  land,  that  Dr.  Stokes  is  entitled  to  every 
honour  which  his  professional  brethren  can  bestow 
on  him. 

"He  has  lived  amongst  us  a  long  life  of  stain- 
less reputation  ;  he  has  been  a  skilled  physician, 
a  kind  considerate  friend ;  he  has  worked  with 
honest  labour  at  the  profession  of  his  adoption  ;  he 
has  endeavoured  to  promote  her  progress ;  he  has 
ever  been  the  champion  of  her  rights  ;  he  has  ever 
been  the  chivalrous  guardian  of  her  dignity  and 
her  honour.  I  think  the  proceedings  of  to-day  have 
212 


SPEECH   OF  MR.  EDWARD  HAMILTON 

a  far  higher  significance  and  a  far  deeper  import  than 
the  honour  we  are  doing  to  a  distinguished  individual. 
That  marble  statue  will  hand  down  to  admiring 
posterity  the  features  and  form  of  one  we  loved 
so  well ;  while  it  speaks  to  us  of  the  honour  con- 
ferred on  him,  which  he  so  well  deserves,  it  will 
also  tell  another  story.  It  will  remind  us  of  the 
time  when  there  was  laid  the  foundation  stone  of 
clinical  medicine  in  Ireland  ;  it  will  remind  us  of 
the  time  when  a  work  of  progress  was  done  ;  and 
although  in  past  ages  Ireland  boasted  of  her  school 
of  physic^  yet  it  was  not  until  it  was  placed  on 
the  firm  basis  of  bedside  operation  that  it  was  able 
to  take  its  position  with  the  school  in  the  sister 
country.  Who  was  the  pioneer  in  that  work  of 
progress  ?  William  Stokes.  Therefore,  I  think  that 
in  unveiling  this  statue  we  commemorate  an  im- 
portant era.  When  we  have  passed  away  like  the 
grass  that  withers,  and  when  our  places  know  us 
no  more,  and  when,  no  doubt,  future  ages,  as  they 
admire  that  statue,  will  ask,  Who  was  William 
Stokes  ?  I  would  say  that  not  in  the  whole  chaplet 
of  honours  that  surrounds  his  name  is  there  a 
brighter  jewel  than  that  which  proclaims  he  was 
one  of  the  founders  of  clinical  medicine." 

13 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

Probably  one  of  the  most  generous  and  appreciative 
estimates  of  Stokes'  powers  as  a  teacher  is  one  given 
by  Dr.  Arthur  Wynne  Foot,  who  for  several  years 
was  his  trusted  and  valued  colleague  in  the  Meath 
Hospital.  Certain  it  is  that  there  has  been  no  one  in 
recent  years  better  qualified  to  form  such  an  estimate, 
as  all  admit  that  as  a  brilliant  lecturer,  Dr.  Foot 
proved  himself  not  merely  able  to  maintain,  but  also 
to  enhance  the  great  reputation  of  the  Meath  Hospital 
as  a  clinical  centre  ;  a  reputation  made  for  it  mainly 
by  the  efforts  of  Graves,  Dease,  Crampton,  and 
Smyly,  as  well  as  by  the  subject  of  this  memoir. 

Dr.  Foot  emphasised  the  opinions  of  Stokes  as  to 
medical  education  when  referring  to  a  lecture 
delivered  by  him  twelve  years  before,  and  he  adds 
that  he  would  even  introduce  a  student  who  was 
ignorant  of  anatomy,  physiology,  and  chemistry  into 
the  hospital  wards  from  the  first  day  he  had  made 
up  his  made  to  be  a  doctor,  holding  that  anatomy, 
physiology,  and  chemistry  are  not  the  A  B  C  of 
medicine.  In  this  view,  he  adds,  "I  am  supported 
by  the  opinion  of  our  great  master  Stokes,  who  asks, 
in  reference  to  these  three  branches  of  study,  will 
they  teach  his  hand,  his  eye,  his  ear  ?  But  more, 
will  they  teach  him  the  look  of  a  sick  man,  sympathy 
214 


STOKES   AS   A   TEACHER 

with  the  sick,  charity  to  the  sick,  patience  with 
the  sick  ?  Will  they  soften  his  heart  by  witnessing 
their  sufferings,  or  rejoice  it  by  feeling  their  grati- 
tude ?  No  ;  and  yet  these  things  are  of  more 
importance  to  the  moulding  of  his  character  and 
to  his  future  usefulness  than  any  knowledge  of  the 
accessory  sciences,  and  he  cannot  begin  to  feel  their 
blessed  influence  too  soon."1 

Another  object  which  should  be  aimed  at  is  sug- 
gestive, rather  than  exhaustive,  teaching.  On  this 
subject  I  will  quote  again  from  a  lecture  of  Stokes  : 
"  One  word  as  to  the  duty  of  teachers,  and  this 
applies  to  those  of  other  sciences  as  well  as 
medicine.  It  is  not  to  convey  all  the  facts  of  a 
subject  to  their  hearers,  but  it  is,  by  precept  and 
example,  to  teach  them  how  to  teach  and  guide 
themselves.  If  they  succeed  in  this  they  have  done 
their  duty  in  the  largest  sense  of  the  word."  2 

Another  extract  from  one  of  Dr.  Foot's  lectures 
in  Meath  Hospital  may  be  made  as  illustrative  of 
the  strong  personal  influence  of  Stokes.  "  As  a 
teacher  his  sphere  lay,  of  course,  far  above  mine ; 
yet  no  one  could  come  within  the  influence  of 

1  Introd.  Lecture,  November  r,  1869. 

2  Stokes,  "  Med.  Ethics,"  1869,  p.  5. 

215 


WILLIAM  STOKES 

his  presence  and  not  be  penetrated  by  a  sense  of 
the  truth,  earnestness,  and  reality  which  were  ever 
manifest  in  his  thoughts.  .  .  .  The  object  of  his 
teaching  was,  not  to  fit  the  students  for  the 
examining  boards,  but  to  make  them  good  practi- 
tioners. This  result  was  ever  in  his  view,  and  was 
the  real  cause  of  his  incontestable  pre-eminence  in 
the  wards,  in  the  lecture  theatre,  and  in  his  writings. 
It  would  be  impossible  to  conceive  a  teacher  less 
like  what  is  popularly  termed  a  4 grinder'  than 
he  was.  Although  a  master  of  differential  diagnosis 
in  the  right  time  and  place,  he  did  not  draw  the 
hard-and-fast  lines  between  individual  specimens  of 
disease,  so  dear  to  the  grinder  and  examiner. 

"Tabular  diagnostics,  type  diseases,  positive  asser- 
tions about  pathognomonic  signs,  were  not  in  accord- 
ance with  his  comprehensive  and  philosophic  mind. 
He  copied  Nature,  and  Nature  refuses  to  run  like 
a  canal  in  a  regulated  course  within  strict  barriers. 
The  life -long  attachment  of  his  pupils  is  the 
liveliest  proof  of  his  possession  of  all  the  qualities 
of  a  nature-made  teacher.  And  why  was  it  that 
we  loved  so  much  that  grave,  stern  face,  every  line 
of  which  was  marked  with  power,  and  before  whose 
calm  regard  forwardness  shrank  back  into  the  obscurity 
216 


ESTIMATE   OF   STOKES  AS   A  TEACHER 

from  which  it  ought  never  to  have  emerged,  and  the 
insanity  of  conceit  became  instantaneously  sobered  ? 
It  was  because  we,  who  watched  him  closely,  knew 
well  that  unfathomed  seas  of  feeling  lay  beneath  his 
composed  exterior,  and  would  from  time  to  time 
break  through,  convincing  us  that  the  sympathetic 
man  was  the  true  man.  It  was  because  we  saw 
that  when  the  ear  of  the  poor  heard  him,  then 
it  blessed  him,  and  when  the  eye  saw  him  it  gave 
witness  to  him  ;  the  blessing  of  him  that  was  ready 
to  perish  came  upon  him,  and  he  caused  the  widow's 
heart  to  sing  for  joy.  It  has  been  said  that  the 
inscription  on  Fichte's  funeral  obelisk  might  be 
rightly  graven  on  the  tomb  of  Stokes :  *  The 
teachers  shall  shine  as  the  brightness  of  the  firma- 
ment.' Equally  suitable,  I  would  venture  to  suggest, 
would  be  the  proud  words  of  Hippocrates — *  'lar/ooe 
^>tAo(To^oc  iffoflcoe.'  But  why,  it  may  be  asked,  do 
I  now  refer  to  Stokes,  who,  although  in  my  own 
case,  first  a  teacher,  afterwards  a  colleague,  and  always 
a  friend,  has  been  seen  but  by  few  students  of  the 
present  day,  and  whose  ways  and  words  are  now 
matters  of  history  in  the  archives  of  this  hospital. 
It  is  because  this  is  the  first  public  occasion  since 
his  removal  that  I  have  had  an  opportunity  for  the 
217 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

expression  of  filial  gratitude  and  reverential  regard 
to  his  memory,  and  because  his  is  a  name  which 
may  fitly  be  invoked  upon  an  occasion  like  the 
present,  inasmuch  as  now  he  must  be  regarded  as 
one  of  the  chief  makers  of  this  hospital  in  which 
for  nine  and  forty  years  he  consecrated  his  genius 
to  the  service  of  the  poor,  in  which  he  brought 
to  light  some  of  the  profoundest  truths  of  medicine, 
and  from  which  he  sent  forth  hundreds  of  sound 
and  good  practitioners,  to  whose  exertions  thousands, 
and  more  than  thousands,  owe  their  lives.  .  .  ." 

An  obituary  notice  of  Stokes  appeared  shortly  after 
his  death,  by  his  friend  and  former  pupil,  Dr.  J.  W. 
Moore,  and  was  published  in  the  Dublin  Journal  of 
Medical  Science.  It  is  full  of  true  appreciation  and 
deep  feeling,  as  the  following  passage  attests  : — 

"  A  model  and  diligent  student,  he  in  time  became 
a  painstaking  and  successful  teacher — the  sympathising 
friend,  the  prudent  counsellor,  and  the  ardent  well- 
wisher  of  every  one  of  his  *  fellow-students,'  for  so 
he  called  his  pupils.  But  he  was  more  than  this. 
Those  who  have  seen  Dr.  Stokes  at  the  bedside  of 
the  sick  know  how  gentle,  how  refined,  how  kindly 
was  his  bearing  towards  the  patient.  Amid  all  the 
ardour  of  clinical  observation  and  research  he  never 
218 


ESTIMATE  OF  STOKES   AS   A  TEACHER 

for  one  moment  forgot  the  sufferer  before  him — no 
thoughtless  word  from  his  lips,  no  rough  or  unkind 
action  ever  ruffled  the  calm  confidence  reposed  in  him 
by  those  who  sought  his  skill  and  care.  In  many 
eloquent  lectures  delivered  in  the  Meath  Hospital,  he 
inculcated  those  Christian  lessons  of  charity  and 
thoughtfulness  ;  and  so  by  precept  and  example  he 
strove  to  teach  the  duties  of  a  true  and  God-fearing 
physician." 

"  Dr.  Stokes,"  says  Professor  Haughton,  "  when 
we  are  all  passed  away  and  forgotten,  will  be  remem- 
bered as  the  advancer  of  medical  science.  He  was 
profoundly  convinced  of  the  fact  that  medicine  was 
not  a  science  ;  neither  was  physiology  nor  meteoro- 
logy ;  but  he  believed  in  his  heart  of  hearts  that 
medicine  would  one  day  become  a  science,  and  he 
felt  that  his  task  in  life  as  a  cultivator  of  medicine 
was  to  endeavour  to  take  such  steps,  and  to  pursue 
such  researches,  as  would  help  to  elevate  medicine 
from  the  empiricism  of  Hippocrates  and  the  dogma- 
tism of  Galen  to  the  position  of  an  art  which  though 
not  yet  a  science  is  about  to  become  a  science,  and  in 
order  to  convert  the  practice  of  medicine  into  a  science 
he  first  established  intelligent  diagnosis,  accuracy  and 
precision  in  the  distinction  of  diseases  one  from  another 
219 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

as  the  basis  of  therapeutics.  He  laboured  also  to 
make  the  exact  sciences  the  handmaid  of  practical 
medicine." 

In  the  year  1876,  and  shortly  after  the  unveiling 
of  the  statue  in  the  Royal  College  of  Physicians,  he 
received  a  communication  from  Count  Miinster,  the 
English  Ambassador  of  the  German  Emperor, 
William  I.,  presenting  him  with  the  Prussian  Order 
"  Pour  le  Merite  "  of  Frederick  the  Great,  as  a  tribute 
in  recognition  of  his  contributions  and  original  investi- 
gations in  the  science  of  medicine.  The  rare  dis- 
tinction had  only  been  conferred  on  two  Irishmen 
before,  the  late  Humphry  Lloyd,  D.D.,  Provost  of 
Trinity  College,  Dublin,  and  Dr.  Romney  Robinson, 
D.D.,  astronomer  and  scientist,  and  it  may  be  regarded 
as  the  crowning  honour  of  Stokes'  life.1 

1  This  order  was  originally  granted  only  for  military  services  in  the 
field.  In  1842,  however,  King  Frederick  William  IV.  extended  the 
order,  and  granted  it  as  well  for  proficiency  in  science  and  art.  Among 
the  "  Auslandische  Ritter"  nominated  in  1875  was  "  Wilhelm  Stokes, 
Professor  an  der  Universitat  zu  Dublin." 


220 


- 


XIII 
FINAL  LITERARY  WORK — LAST  DAYS 

THE  final  literary  work  that  Stokes  undertook 
was  a  biographical  memoir  of  his  lifelong  friend 
George  Petrie,1  "archaeologist,  painter,  musician, 
man  of  letters  ;  as  such  and  for  himself  revered  and 
loved."  The  work  was  in  every  sense  a  labour  of 
love.  In  all  matters  connected  with  art  and  literature 
there  was  a  strong  mutual  sympathy  between  Petrie 
and  his  biographer  ;  the  former  was  through  life,  as 
Stokes  observed,  "  a  rare  example  of  purity  and  gentle- 
ness of  character  almost  feminine ;  although  when 
called  upon  he  could  exhibit  the  greatest  energy,  firm- 
ness, and  determination."  Petrie's  training  as  an 

1  "  The  Life  and  Labours  in  Art  and  Archasology  of  George  Petrie, 
LL.D.,  M.R.I.A.,  and  Member  of  many  learned  Societies,"  by  William 
Stokes,  M.D.,  D.C.L.  Oxon,  Physician  to  the  Queen  in  Ireland,  and 
Regius  Professor  of  Physic  in  Dublin  University."  London  :  Longmans, 
Green  and  Co. 

221  p 


WILLIAM  STOKES 

artist  commenced  in  his  earliest  childhood  under  the 
guidance  of  his  father,  who  was  a  portrait  painter  of 
considerable  eminence.  In  connection  with  this 
artist  an  episode  is  introduced  into  Stokes'  work  that 
occurred  during  Petrie's  childhood  which  is  full  of 
deep  pathos:  "Of  the  events  of  1798,  as  well  as 
those  of  1803,  Petrie  preserved  a  lively  recollection. 
His  father,  though  a  Loyalist,  was  yet  on  friendly  terms 
with  a  number  of  the  prominent  political  characters 
of  the  time,  whose  portraits  he  painted.  Among 
them  are  Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald,  Robert  Emmett, 
John  Philpot  Curran  and  others — all  most  valuable 
from  their  truthfulness  and  excellent  style  of  handling. 
After  the  execution  of  Emmett,  he  was  requested  to 
paint  a  portrait  of  him  from  memory,  with  the  aid  of 
such  studies  of  the  head  and  face  as  he  had  by  him. 
It  is  needless  to  say  from  whom  this  order  came. 
When  the  work  was  finished  the  artist  wrote  to  Miss 
Curran,  requesting  her  to  come  and  see  it.  He  was 
out  when  she  called,  but  she  entered  his  study  not- 
withstanding. Petrie,  then  a  little  boy,  was  standing 
at  the  window  concealed  by  the  curtain,  when  he  saw 
a  lady,  thickly  veiled,  enter  and  walk  straight  to  the 
easel  on  which  the  work  rested.  She  did  not  notice 
the  child,  and  thought  herself  alone  with  the  picture 
222 


LIFE  OF   PETRIE 

of  her  buried  love.  She  lifted  her  veil,  stood  long  and 
in  unbroken  stillness  gazing  at  the  face ;  then  suddenly 
turning,  she  moved  with  an  unsteady  step  to  another 
corner  of  the  room,  and  bending  forward,  pressed  her 
forehead  against  the  wall,  heaving  deep  sobs,  her 
whole  frame  shaken  with  a  storm  of  passionate  grief. 
How  long  this  agony  lasted  the  boy  could  not  tell,  it 
appeared  to  him  to  be  an  hour,  and  then,  with  a  sudden 
effort,  she  controlled  herself,  pulled  down  her  veil,  and 
as  quickly  and  as  silently  left  the  room  as  she  had 
come  into  it.  She  was  unaware  of  his  presence,  un- 
conscious of  the  depths  of  silent  sympathy  she  had 
awakened  in  the  heart  of  the  child,  whose  sensitive 
and  delicate  nature  kept  him  from  intruding  on  her 
grief." 

Speaking  of  Petrie's  love  of  the  lower  animals, 
Stokes  says  (p.  393) — 

"  There  was,  indeed,  in  him  a  full  sympathy  with 
the  feelings  so  beautifully  expressed  in  Coleridge — 

" '  He  prayeth  well,  who  loveth  well 

Both  man  and  bird  and  beast. 
He  prayeth  best,  who  loveth  best 

All  things,  both  great  and  small  ; 
For  the  dear  God  who  loveth  us, 

He  made  and  loveth  all."  " 

As  a  landscape  painter  Petrie's  work  will  be  ever 
223 


WILLIAM  STOKES 

prized  for  his  delicacy,  truthfulness,  and  refinement, 
and  in  music,  his  countrymen  must  be  ever  grateful 
to  him  for  rescuing  from  an  undeserved  oblivion  so 
many  beautiful  national  melodies  of  Ireland,  which 
are  so  much  appreciated  now  by  all  true  lovers  of 
music. 

On  this  subject  he  writes  reproachfully :  "  The 
music  of  Ireland  has  been  the  exclusive  property  of 
the  peasantry — the  descendants  of  the  ancient  inhabi- 
tants of  the  country.  The  upper  classes  are  a  different 
race — a  race  which  possess  no  national  music,  or  if 
any,  one  essentially  different  from  that  of  Ireland. 
They  were  insensible  to  its  beauty,  for  it  breathed 
not  their  feelings  ;  and  they  resigned  it  to  those  from 
whom  they  took  everything  else,  because  it  was  a 
jewel  of  whose  worth  they  were  ignorant.  He, 
therefore,  who  would  add  to  the  stock  of  Irish  melody 
must  seek  it,  not  in  the  halls  of  the  great,  but  in  the 
cabins  of  the  poor.  He  must  accept  the  frank  hospi- 
tality of  the  peasant's  humble  hearth  or  follow  him  as 
he  toils  at  his  daily  labours." 

But  that  by  which  Petrie  will  chiefly  be  known  to 

posterity  is  his  work  on  the  ancient  architecture  of 

Ireland,  in  which  he  finally  established  the  Christian 

origin  and  ecclesiastical  character  of  the  Round  Towers 

224 


LIFE   OF   PETRIE 

of  the  Irish  monasteries,  about  the  pagan  origin  of 
which  there  had  hitherto  been  much  discussion. 
When  this  work,  the  progress  of  which  Stokes  had 
persistently  urged  forward,  was  completed  and  laid  on 
the  table  of  the  Royal  Irish  Academy,  Petrie, 
thankful  that  his  labour  was  at  an  end,  and  unwilling 
to  be  present  on  its  presentation  to  the  Academy, 
remained  quietly  at  home.  He  describes  in  one  of  his 
letters  to  Lord  Dunraven  how  at  half-past  nine  he 
heard  a  loud  rapping  at  his  door.  "  It  was  Stokes, 
flushed  with  joy,"  who  came  to  announce  to  his  old 
friend  the  triumphant  reception  it  had  met  with  in 
the  Academy.  This  work,  the  first  that  placed  Irish 
archaeology  on  a  sound  basis,  was  dedicated  to  William 
Stokes  along  with  Edwin,  third  Earl  of  Dunraven,  in 
the  following  beautiful  letter T — 

"Mv  LORD  AND  SIR, — You  will  remember  that 
in  one  of  the  beautiful  works  of  the  great  painter, 
Nicolo  Poussin,  he  has  depicted  a  group  of  shepherds 
at  an  ancient  tomb,  one  of  whom  deciphers  for  the 
rest  the  simple  inscription  engraved  upon  it — 

4  Et  ego  in  Arcadia,' 

and  it  was  a  natural  and  grateful  desire  of  the  Arcadian 

1  See  "  Life  of  George  Petrie,"  pp.  1 86,  209. 
225 


WILLIAM  STOKES 

shepherd  to  be  remembered  in  connection  with  the 
beloved  region  in  which  he  had  found  tranquillity  and 
enjoyment. 

"  In  like  manner  I  would  wish  to  be  remembered 
hereafter,  less  for  what  I  have  attempted  to  do,  than 
as  one  who,  in  the  pure  and  warm  hearts  of  the  best 
and  most  intellectual  of  his  local  contemporaries,  had 
found  and  enjoyed  a  resting-place  far  superior  to  that 
of  the  Greek. 

"As  two  of  the  dearest  of  those  friends,  equally 
known,  beloved,  and  honoured  by  all,  as  by  me, 
permit  me  then  to  inscribe  your  names  on  this  humble 
monument,  so  tha^t  if  it  should  haply  survive  the 
wreck  of  time,  it  may  be  known  as  that  of  one  who, 
though  but  a  feeble  and  unskilled  labourer  in  the 
fields  of  art  and  literature,  was  not  deemed  unworthy 
of  the  warmest  regards  of  such  as  you,  and  who  was 
not  ungrateful  for  his  happiness." 

The  object  of  Stokes'  memoir  of  his  friend  Petrie, 
was  not  merely  to  pay  a  deserved  tribute  to  the 
memory  of  one  who  had  been  so  gifted,  and  who  had 
always  been  so  loyal  and  steadfast  a  friend,  but  also  to 
point  out  the  importance  of  Petrie's  labours  in  an 
educational  point  of  view,  and  as  establishing  scientific 
226 


LIFE   OF   PETRIE 

methods  of  investigation  in  the  study  of  archaeology. 
It  probably  has  also  been  of  service  in  pointing  out 
what,  alas  !  is  so  little  known  in  England,  namely, 
the  tone  of  feeling  and  the  lofty  aspiration  which 
characterise  the  true  Irish  patriot. 

After  the  memoir  was  completed  Stokes  received 
many  appreciative  letters  from  his  literary  friends 
congratulating  him  on  the  successful  accomplish- 
ment of  his  task.  Among  them  the  following  will 
be  read  with  interest — 

"  FROM  THE  EARL  OF  DUNRAVEN  TO  WILLIAM 
STOKES. 

"ADARE,  Dec.  22,  1868. 

"Mv  DEAR  DR.  STOKES, — Thanks  for  the  de- 
lightful book  which  came  this  morning.  I  am 
very  glad  you  did  not  write  my  name,  as  you  will 
have  to  come  and  do  it  here,  and  the  sooner  the 
better. 

"Do  not  trouble  yourself  about  the  omissions  of 
your  book.  If  the  public  is  worthy  of  the  work 
they  can  be  inserted  in  due  time.  And  in  the 
mean  time  be  content  with  having  paid  the  noblest 
tribute  that  could  be  offered  to  your  departed  friend, 
and  paid  it  so  handsomely  and  satisfactorily.  I  really 
227 


WILLIAM  STOKES 

quite  envy  you — if  such  a  feeling  is  allowable;  as 
a  friend  I  am  truly  proud  of  the  result  of  your 
labours,  and  as  Petrie's  friend  I  warmly  thank  you 
for  having  with  such  truth,  such  feeling,  and  such 
thorough  appreciation  done  honour  to  one  of 
Ireland's  most  gifted  heroes.  You  remember  the 
old  sign — 'Rest  and  be  thankful.'  Apply  that  to 
yourself  until  the  second  edition  is  wanted. 

"  Yours, 

"  DUNRAVEN." 

"  FROM  PROFESSOR  HUXLEY  TO    WILLIAM    STOKES. 

"  Jan.  13,  1870. 

"DEAR  DR  STOKES, — I  thank  you  very  heartily 
for  your  letter,  which  has  not  only  given  me  much 
pleasure  but  will  be  of  great  use  to  me.  Of  course 
I  have  never  been  a  special  student  of  Irish  history 
but  years  ago  I  tried  to  make  something  of  it  in 
connection  with  my  ethnological  studies,  and  the 
general  effect  was,  as  the  Germans  say,  '  like  a  mill- 
wheel  in  one's  head.'  I  have  had  the  opportunity 
more  than  once  of  examining  the  splendid  collec- 
tion of  antiquities  in  the  Irish  Academy's  museum, 
and  I  had  a  general  notion  of  the  great  services 
Dr.  Petrie  had  done  to  Irish  archaeology,  but  I 
228 


LIFE  OF   PETRIE 

was  not  aware  that  his  work  had  the  direct  bearing 
upon  Irish  history  which  you  tell  me  it  has.  I 
shall  take  the  earliest  opportunity  of  making  myself 
acquainted  with  Dr.  Petrie's  writings  and  I  beg 
leave  to  thank  you  in  advance  for  the  copy  of  his 
Life  which  you  are  so  kind  as  to  offer,  and  which  I 
shall  value  all  the  more  as  it  comes  directly  from 
yourself. 

"It  will  be  a  great  satisfaction  to  me  if  from 
what  you  and  others  have  written  to  me  I  may 
permit  myself  to  think  that  I  have  done  something 
towards  removing  a  prejudice  which  I  believe  has 
a  very  bad  influence  upon  practical  politics. 
"  Believe  me,  dear  Dr.  Stokes, 

"  Yours  very  sincerely, 

"T.  H.  HUXLEY." 

"  FROM  MR.  J.  LE  FANU  TO  WILLIAM  STOKES. 
"18,  MERRION  SQUARE,  S. 

"Jan.  8,  1869. 

"  DEAR  SIR, — Pray  accept  my  very  sincere 
thanks  for  the  present  of  your  memoir  of  our 
modest,  beloved,  and  illustrious  countryman,  George 
Petrie,  with  whose  acquaintance  I  was  honoured 
and  with  whom  it  was  impossible  to  have  any 
229 


WILLIAM  STOKES 

acquaintance  untinged  by  affection.  His  memory 
is  happy  in  having  found  a  biographer  like  you,  who 
understood  and  loved  not  only  his  pursuits,  but 
himself,  with  the  high  powers  and  sympathies  to  do 
so  large  a  subject  justice  and  with  eminence  to 
command  attention. 

"  Believe  me,  with  much  respect, 
"Yours  truly, 

"J.  S.  LE  FANU." 

"  FROM  SIR  JAMES   CLARK,  BART.,  PHYSICIAN  TO 
THE  QUEEN,  TO  WILLIAM  STOKES. 

"  BAGSHOT  PARK,  SURREY, 

"January  4,   1868. 

"  DEAR  DR.  STOKES, — I  beg  to  thank  you  very 
sincerely  for  the  volume  which  you  have  kindly  sent 
me.  I  confess  that  it  was  not  without  surprise  that  I 
read  your  name  upon  the  title-page  as  the  author  of 
such  a  body  of  print.  It  is  true  that  when  I  glanced 
over  it  I  found  that  the  subject  of  it  had  written  a 
large  part  of  the  volume.  This  arranging  the  matter 
and  putting  it  altogether  is  no  small  work,  and  I  am 
surprised  that  you  could  find  time  with  your  ex- 
tensive practice  and  your  many  professional  labours 
to  compose  that  work.  Petrie  seems  to  have 
230 


LAST   DAYS 

been    an    extraordinary    man    and    writes    well    and 
strongly.  .  .  . 

"  I  am,  dear  Dr.  Stokes, 

"Sincerely  yours, 

"J.  A.  CLARK." 

It  has  already  been  pointed  out  that  Stokes 
possessed  an  exceptional  power  as  a  relater  of  anec- 
dote. This  was  doubtless  due  to  his  dramatic  instinct, 
to  his  intense  interest  in  every  form  of  human  cha- 
racter, and  to  his  wide  and  deep  sympathies  with  the 
sorrows,  as  well  as  the  joys  of  all  those  with  whom  he 
came  in  contact.  He  combined,  as  Sir  Henry  Acland 
has  said,  "  real  delight  in  all  intellectual  development 
with  the  deepest  sympathy  for  the  suffering.  Nothing 
could  equal  the  pathos  of  his  voice  and  utterance 
when  telling  a  tale  of  sorrow  and  suffering  among  his 
countrymen,  or  the  keen  sense  of  humour  he  dis- 
played in  the  relation  of  many  of  his  experiences 
acquired  in  all  classes  of  society  throughout  the 
length  and  breadth  of  the  country.  Some  of  these 
anecdotes  may  be  recorded  here,  although  it  is  mainly 
from  memory  that  the  writer  ventures  to  repeat 
them  : — 

Father  Burke,  an  aged  priest,  and  Dean  of  West- 
port,  related  the  following  story  illustrating  the  deep 
231 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

religious  feeling  of  the  Irish  peasantry.  "  I  had  the 
largest  parish  in  the  diocese  though  I  was  the  Dean, 
and  had  no  less  than  four  curates — God  help  them. 
They  were  scattered  here  and  there  through  the 
mountains.  It  was  a  Sunday  morning  early,  and  you 
never  saw  such  heavy  rain  as  was  falling,  when  a  boy 
on  a  horse  rode  up  to  my  house  with  word  that  Father 
Sheehy  was  taken  very  bad,  and  would  not  be  able  to 
celebrate  Mass.  All  the  curates  had  their  hands  full. 
I  was  going  to  breakfast,  but  I  had  to  go  off  without 
it,  and  the  rain  was  so  thick  and  heavy  that  in  five 
minutes  I  felt  the  water  running  down  my  back  as  it 
poured  in  through  the  roof  and  sides  of  the  covered 
car  .in  which  I  was  travelling.  Well,  I  went  on,  the 
blast  and  the  storm  only  seemed  to  increase  as  I  got 
higher  and  higher  among  the  mountains  for  the  best 
part  of  twelve  miles,  when  the  boy  pulled  up.  c  What 
are  you  stopping  for  ? '  said  I.  *  For  your  reverence 
to  say  Mass,'  said  he.  c  Where  ? '  said  I.  '  There,'  he 
said,  pointing  with  his  whip  to  the  ditch,  where  I  saw 
a  large  white  flagstone.  '  That's  the  altar,'  he  said. 
So  I  got  out  and  put  on  my  wet  vestments,  and  after 
a  while  one  poor  creature  came  out  of  the  mist  and 
then  another,  and  then  a  woman  and  a  man  carrying 
their  child,  and  then  more  and  more,  till  a  great  crowd 
232 


LAST  DAYS 

gathered  round  the  stone,  so  great  that  you  could  not 
see  the  end  of  it  in  the  fog  and  mist ;  and  they  were 
all  wet  to  the  skin  after  walking  over  the  mountains 
in  the  storm,  and  then  all  of  them,  on  their  bended 
knees,  when  I  came  to  the  Elevation  of  the  Host, 
called  out  with  one  voice,  c  Cead  mile  failthe,  Chriost 
mo  shlainte!'  ('A  hundred  thousand  welcomes! 
Christ  my  salvation  ! ')  " 

Enough  has  not  been  said  of  Stokes'  unostentatious 
charity,  his  friendship  for  the  poor — and  none  felt  this 
more  than  the  poor  of  Howth.  There  was  a  cobbler 
living  near  Carrig  Breacc  who  was  in  broken  health 
for  many  years.  He  was  fond  of  reading,  and  Stokes 
lent  him  an  odd  volume  of  Scott's  novels  from  time 
to  time.  Walking  beside  him  one  day  on  the  road 
Stokes  said,  "Well,  Denny,  what  did  you  think  of  the 
last  book  I  lent  you?"  "It's  a  great  book  intirely, 
docther,  an'  Sir  Walter  Scott's  a  true  historian." 
"  I'm  inclined  to  agree  with  you,"  said  Stokes  !  "  but 
what  do  you  mean  exactly  by  calling  him  a  true 
historian  ? " 

"  I  mane,  your  honour,  he's  a  thrue  historian, 
because  he  makes  you  love  your  kind." 

Stokes  always  spoke  of  this  afterwards  as  one  of  the 
finest  comments  he  had  ever  heard  on  Scott.  It  would 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

be  vain  to  attempt  to  describe  the  sympathy  for  the 
poor  and  suffering  which  he  could  throw  into  his 
voice  as  he  told  such  a  tale  as  the  following  incident 
in  his  hospital  practice,  which  is  of  interest  as  seeming 
to  show  the  power  of  the  will  in  prolonging  life.  An 
old  pensioner,  a  patient  of  Stokes'  in  the  Meath  Hos- 
pital, whose  life  was  despaired  of,  and  whose  death 
was  hourly  expected,  was  one  morning  distressed  and 
disappointed  at  observing  that  Stokes,  who,  believing 
that  the  man  was  unconscious  at  the  time,  and  that 
it  was  useless  to  attempt  anything  further,  as  his 
condition  was  hopeless,  was  passing  by  his  bed.  The 
patient  cried  out  in  an  agonised  tone  of  voice, 
"  Don't  pass  me  by,  your  honour,  you  must  keep  me 
alive  for  four  days."  "  We  will  keep  you  as  long  as 
we  can,  my  poor  fellow,"  answered  Stokes  ;  "  but  why 
for  four  days  particularly  ? "  "  Because,"  said  the 
other,  "  my  pension  will  be  due  then,  and  I  want  the 
money  for  my  wife  and  children  ;  don't  give  me 
anything  to  sleep,  for  if  I  sleep  I'll  die."  On  the 
third  day  after  this,  to  the  amazement  of  Stokes  and 
all  the  class,  the  patient  was  still  breathing.  The 
students  then  began  to  lay  wagers  among  themselves 
as  to  whether  he  would  survive  for  another  day  and 
become  entitled  to  the  pension.  On  the  morning  of 


LAST   DAYS 

the  fourth  day  he  was  found  still  breathing  and  quite 
conscious,  and  on  Stokes  coming  into  the  ward  he  saw 
the  patient  holding  the  certificate  which  required 
signature  in  his  hand.  On  Stokes  approaching  him 
the  dying  man  gasped  out,  "  Sign,  sign  !  "  This  was 
done,  and  the  man  sank  back  exhausted,  and  in  a  few 
minutes  after  crossed  both  hands  over  his  breast  and 
said,  "  The  Lord  have  mercy  on  my  soul,"  and  then 
passed  quietly  away. 

Shortly  after  his  wife's  death,  a  sorrow  from  which 
Stokes  never  recovered,  a  fall  from  a  car,  while  on 
a  professional  visit  to  the  County  Wicklow,  was 
followed  by  symptoms  of  spinal  concussion,  which 
appeared  to  be  the  determining  cause  of  the  develop- 
ment of  the  paralytic  affection  which  gradually 
weakened  his  perceptive  faculties,  and  ultimately 
deprived  him  of  the  power  of  his  limbs.  He  also 
felt  much  the  further  narrowing  of  his  family  circle 
by  the  death  of  his  daughter  Janet x  and  the  marriage 
of  his  daughter  Elizabeth.2  The  progress  of  the 
failure  in  his  intellectual  and  physical  powers  were 
very  slow,  a  deep  sleep  apparently  falling  on  him,  from 
which  for  long  he  in  vain  strove  to  rouse  himself. 

1  Wife  of  Mr.  (afterwards  Sir  Henry  Edward)  Stokes,  M.C.S. 

2  Wife  of  the  late  Mr.  John  Boxwell,  Commissioner  of  Dacca,  I.C.S. 

235 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

At  times  he  would  do  so  and  be  then  as  intellectually 
clear  and  brilliant  as  ever.  But  these  periods,  like 
gleams  of  sunshine  that  at  times  suddenly  flash  from 
dark  clouds  that  presage  a  storm,  were  brief  and 
seldom  recurring.  His  family  then  urged  him  to  give 
up  all  work,  and  to  resign  the  Presidency  of  the  Royal 
Irish  Academy  and  his  seat  on  the  General  Medical 
Council.  It  can  well  be  imagined  what  a  severe 
wrench  it  was  for  him  to  have  to  take  these  necessary 
steps,  as  it  had  always  been  a  fixed  resolve  of  his 
to  "  die  in  harness,"  as  he  himself  said,  and  he  could 
not  divest  himself  of  the  idea  that  to  yield  was 
cowardly.  At  length,  however,  he  consented,  and 
resigning  all  public  work,  went  to  end  his  days  at 
his  residence  at  Howth,  where  the  beauty  of  the 
surroundings  filled  his  exhausted  spirit  with  thankful- 
ness and  peace.  The  writer  has  a  vivid  recollection 
of  the  day  when  his  father  relinquished  all  work,  and 
sadly  left  his  old  home  and  the  city,  in  the  public  life 
of  which,  for  more  than  half  a  century,  he  had  taken 
so  prominent  and  distinguished  a  part.  Seeing  him 
slowly  and  reluctantly  driving  away,  never  to  return, 
vividly  recalled  to  his  mind  Turner's  masterpiece  of 
the  old  Temeraire  going  to  its  last  resting-place. 
At  Carrig  Breacc,  his  beloved  retreat  at  Howth, 
236 


LAST   DAYS 

away  from  all  disturbing  influences,  he  spent  the  last 
days  of  his  useful  life  with  his  daughter  Margaret, 
solaced  by  the  presence,  sympathy,  and  care  of  those 
nearest  and  dearest  to  him,  and  the  frequent  visits 
of  many  of  his  best  friends,  among  whom  may  be 
mentioned  Dr.  Jellett,  the  late  Provost  of  Trinity 
College,  the  late  Rev.  Dr.  Russell,  President  of  May- 
nooth  College,  Sir  Samuel  and  Lady  Ferguson,  Dr. 
Ingram,  Professor  Mahaffy,  Lord  Justice  Fitzgibbon, 
Dr.  Gordon,  Dr.  H.  Fitzgibbon,  Dr.  A.  W.  Foot, 
Dr.  J.  W.  Moore.  These  and  others  used  to  go 
down  to  see  him,  cheering  him  by  their  presence, 
and  bringing  him  tidings  of  what  was  going  on  in 
the  outer  world.  He  spent  his  time  chiefly  in  reading 
the  works  of  Shakespeare,  Scott,  Trench,  Tennyson, 
and  the  Arthurian  Legends,  in  which  latter  he  took 
the  keenest  interest.  The  poetry  of  Burns,  Shelley, 
Byron,  and  his  friend  Sir  Samuel  Ferguson,  were 
never -failing  sources  of  keen  enjoyment.  Music, 
ballad  poetry,  his  plantations  and  flower  garden,  and 
observing  the  beautiful  and  ever-changing  effects  of 
mist  and  cloud,  sunshine  and  shadow  on  the  bay 
beneath  him,  and  the  fair  Wicklow  hills  beyond,  were 
all  sources  of  deep  delight. 

But  the  time  came  when  all  such  interests  ceased  ; 
237  Q 


WILLIAM   STOKES 

for  early  in  November,  1877,  he  was  struck  down  by 
a  sudden  paralytic  seizure  from  which  he  never  quite 
rallied,  though  he  lingered  on  for  two  months  after 
this.  He  grew  steadily  weaker,  and  on  January  6th, 
the  Feast  of  the  Epiphany,  he  quietly,  and  apparently 
without  suffering,  passed  into  his  long  rest  "  to  where 
beyond  these  voices  there  is  peace." 

It  was  his  wish,  and  that  of  his  family,  that  the 
funeral  should  be  private,  and  this  was  communicated 
to  the  academical  bodies  and  learned  societies  to  which 
he  belonged.  But  it  was  not  found  possible,  so  that 
although  these  societies  were  not,  so  to  say,  officially 
represented,  a  large  number  of  distinguished  persons 
connected  with  them  attended,  and  made  it  virtually 
representative.  From  the  Meath  Hospital,  so  long  the 
arena  of  his  professional  labours  and  scientific  achieve- 
ments, and  the  two  Royal  Colleges  of  Physicians  and 
Surgeons,  came  a  long  procession  of  mourners.  The 
country  people,  most  of  whom  had  come  the  day 
before,  laden  with  flowers,  to  take  a  last  look  at  the 
face  of  their  friend,  now  petitioned  that  they  might 
carry  the  remains  from  Carrig  Breacc  to  the  Church 
of  St.  Fintan — the  "  grassy  churchyard  grave  "  on 
the  western  slope  of  the  Hill  of  Howth,  where  he 
was  to  be  laid  beside  his  beloved  wife  and  children, 
238 


LAST   DAYS 

The  morning  was  clear  and  summer-like  as  they 
bore  him  tenderly  to  his  last  resting-place.  A  mist  lay 
over  the  churchyard,  but  just  as  the  procession  reached 
the  gate  this  cleared  off  and  showed  the  picturesque 
ivy-clad  ruins  of  the  ancient  church,  at  the  western 
door  of  which  he  was  to  be  laid.  Here  a  stalwart 
band  of  devoted  and  true-hearted  students  from  his 
hospital  begged  to  be  permitted  to  carry  their  beloved 
master  for  the  rest  of  the  way  to  the  grave — the 
teacher  on  whose  lips,  now  closed  for  ever,  they  had 
so  often  hung,  enthralled  alike  by  his  earnestness, 
enthusiasm,  and  eloquence,  and  ever  eager  not  to  lose 
even  one  of  the  golden  grains  of  knowledge  of  which 
he  was  so  prodigal.  They  laid  him  in  the  same  grave 
and  beneath  the  same  stone  with  her  who  was  the 
beloved  companion  of  his  life,  and  on  whose  tomb  he 
had  engraved  those  words  : 

"  When  the  ear  heard  her,  then  it  blessed  her, 
When  the  eye  saw  her  it  rejoiced, 
When  the  poor  and  suffering  came  unto  her 
They  were  comforted." 


"  Awake  him  not,  surely  he  takes  his  fill 
Of  deep  and  liquid  rest  forgetful  of  all  ill." 


239 


APPENDIX 


APPENDIX 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 
(Dr.   Stokes's  Works. 

1825.  "A  Treatise  on  the  Use  of  the  Stethoscope." 

1828.  Two  Lectures  on  the  Application  of  the  Stetho- 
scope. 

1837.  "Diseases  of  the  Chest." 

1854.  "Diseases  of  the  Heart  and  Aorta." 

1868.  "Life  and  Labours  in  Art  and  Archeology  of 
George  Petrie." 

1874.  Lectures  on  Fever. 

Articles  in  "  Dublin  Journal  of  Medical  Science "  by  Dr. 
Stores. 

May,  1832 — January,  1872. 

"Clinical  Observations  on  the  Exhibition  of  Opium  in 
Large  Doses,  in  certain  Cases  of  Disease,"  i.  125. 

"Contributions  to  Thoracic  Pathology,"  ii.  51. 

"Contributions  to  Thoracic  Pathology,"  iii.  50. 

"  Researches  on  the  Diagnosis  of  Pericarditis,"  iv.  29. 

"Researches  on  the  Diagnosis  and  Pathology  of 
Aneurism,"  v.  400. 

"  Researches  on  Laennec's  Vesicular  Emphysema,  with 

243 


APPENDIX 

observations  on  Paralysis  of  the  Intercostal  Muscles  and 
Diaphragm,  considered  a  new  source  of  Diagnosis,"  ix.  27. 

"  Researches  on  the  State  of  the  Heart,  and  the  use 
of  Wine  in  Typhus  Fever,"  xv.  I. 

"Researches  on  the  Pathology  and  Diagnosis  of  Cancers 
of  the  Lung  and  Mediastinum,"  xxi.  206. 

"  Observations  on  the  Case  of  the  late  Abraham  Colles, 
M.D.,"  i.  303. 

"Observations  on  some  cases  of  Permanently  Slow 
Pulse,"  ii.  73. 

"  On  the  Mortality  of  Medical  Practitioners  from  Fever 
in  Ireland"  (Stokes  and  J.  W.  Cusack,  M.D.),  iv.  134. 

"  On  the  Mortality  of  Medical  Practitioners  in 
Ireland,"  second  article  (Stokes  and  J.  W.  Cusack, 
M.D.),  v.  in. 

"  Clinical  Researches  on  the  Gangrene  of  the  Lung," 
ix.  I. 

"On  the  Prevention  of  Pitting  of  the  Face  in  Con- 
fluent Small-pox,"  xxix.  in. 

"  On  some  Requirements  in  Clinical  Teaching  in 
Dublin,"  li.  38. 

"  Some  Notes  on  the  Treatment  of  Small-pox,"  liii.  9. 

Papers  read  to  Societies  by  Dr.  Stokes,  reported  in  "  'Dublin 
Journal  of  Medical  Science" 

August,   1835 — February,   1874. 

"  On  the  Diagnosis  of  some  Diseases  of  the  Thorax," 
viii.  196. 

"  Softening  the  Heart  with  Thinning  of  its  Parietes," 
xxi.  133. 

"Bright's  Disease  of  the  Kidney,"  xxi.  144. 

"Acute  Induration  of  the  Lung,"  xxi.  151. 

"  Cirrhosis  of  the  Lung,"  xxi.  293. 

"Gangrene  of  the  Lang,"  xxi.  317. 
244 


APPENDIX 

"Aneurism  of  the  Abdominal  Aorta,  opening  into  the 
Parenchyma  of  the  Lungs,"  xxiii.  166. 

"Vegetation  on  the  Semilunar  Valves,  causing  Patency," 
xxiv.  279. 

"Atrophy  of  the  Heart  in  Phthisis,"  xxiv.  283. 

"  Granular  Kidney — Diabetes — Pneumonia — Hydro- 
thorax,"  xxiv.  295. 

"  Observations  on  Dr.  Bigger's  Communications  at  the 
last  Meeting  (Contraction  of  Left  Auriculo-ventricular 
Opening),"  xxv.  526. 

"Fatty  Degeneration  of  the  Heart,"  i.  491. 

"  Hypertrophy  with  Dilatation  of  the  Left  Ventricle, 
in  an  Anaemic  Subject,"  i.  493. 

"Aneurism  of  the  Arch  of  the  Aorta,  compressing  the 
(Esophagus,  and  perforating  its  Parietes,"  i.  498. 

"  Jaundice — Fungous  Growth  round  the  Orifice  of  the 
Ductus  Choledochus  ;  Dilatation  of  the  Hepatic  Ducts  in 
the  Liver,"  ii.  505. 

"Aneurism  of  the  Abdominal  Aorta,  involving  the 
Cceliac  Axis,  bursting  by  a  large  rent  into  the  Peri- 
toneum ;  gradual  Separation  of  the  Serous  Coat  from 
the  Liver  and  Stomach  by  Aneurism  ;  Absence  of  Caries 
of  Vertebrae,"  ii.  519. 

"  Hydrocephalus,"  ii.  526. 

"Encephaloid  Tumours  in  the  Abdomen,"  x.  202. 

"  Psoas  Abscess  bursting  into  the  Cavity  of  the  Peri- 
toneum," x.  471. 

"Endocarditis  :  Disease  of  the  Mitral  Valve,"  xi.  198. 

"Aneurism  of  the  Thoracic  Aorta,"  xi.  201. 

"  Partial  Displacement  of  the  Sternal  End  of  each 
Clavicle,"  xiii.  459. 

"  Aneurism  of  the  Abdominal  Aorta,"  xv.  480. 

"Diphtheria,"  xxxv.  175. 

"Cancer  of  the  Liver,"  xxxviii.  201. 

"  Pelvic  Abscess,"  xxxviii.  440. 
245 


APPENDIX 

"  Stricture  of  the  Pylorus,"  xxxviii.  448. 

"Cancer  of  the  Gall  Bladder,"  xxxix.  218. 

"Report  on  Three  Cases  which  occurred  in  the  Meath 
Hospital  under  the  care  of  Drs.  Stokes  and  Hudson," 
xliv.  193. 

"Disease  of  the  Aortic  Valves,"  xliv.  423. 

"Cancer  of  the  Liver,"  xliv.  428. 

"  Chronic  Ulcer  of  Stomach,  opening  the  Coronary 
Artery,"  xlv.  201. 

"  Cancer  of  the  Thyroid  Gland  and  Adjoining  Lym- 
phatics," xlvi.  220. 

"  Pulmonary  Phthisis,  with  Emphysema,"  xlvii.  216. 

"Ulcer  of  the  Stomach,"  xlvii.  220. 

"Heart  in  Typhoid  Fever,"  1.  197. 

"  Phlebitis  of  the  Cerebral  Sinuses — Disease  of  the 
Tympanum,"  1.  212. 

"Cancer  of  the  Stomach  and  Mesentery,"  1.  220. 

"  Varicose  Aneurism,"  Hi.  249. 

"  Cancerous  Tumours  of  the  Abdomen  and  Thorax," 
liv.  67. 

"  Chronic  Inflammation  of  the  Spinal  Chord  and  its 
Membranes  ;  Disease  of  the  Spleen,"  Ivi.  62. 

"Enteric  Fever,"  Ivii.  483. 

"Enteric  Fever  ;  Intestinal  Haemorrhage,"  Iviii.  97. 

Short  Report  on  a  Case  by  'Dr.  Stokes  in  "  'Dublin  Journal 
of  Medical  Science" 

"Observations  on  the  Existence  of  a  Proper  Fibrous 
Tunic  of  the  Lung,"  vi.  471. 

Articles  in  "  Cyclopaedia  of  Medicine? 
1832-33. 

On  Derivatives,  Dysphagia,  Enteritis,  Gastritis,  Gastro- 
enteritis, Inflammation  of  the  Liver,  and  Peritonitis. 
246 


APPENDIX 

Lectures  published  in  the  "  London   Medical  and  Surgical 
Journal." 

1833- 

"  On  Theory  and  Practice  of  Medicine,"  delivered  in 
the  Meath  Hospital  and  Park  Street  School  of  Medicine, 
vols  iii.,  iv.,  v.,  vi. 

Lectures  published  in  "  Medical  Times  and  Gazette? 

1854. 
On  Fever. 

Addresses  by  Dr.  Stokes. 

1854.  Discourse    on    the    Life  and  Works   of  Dr.  R.  J. 

Graves. 
„      Opening  Address  of  the  Medical  Session  T.C.D., 

on  State  Medicine. 
1 86 1.  Address  on  Medical  Education. 

1864.  Address  on  Medical  Education  (second). 

„      Address  on  Life  and  Works  of  Mr.  Josiah  Smyly. 

1865.  Address  in   Medicine   before  the   British   Medical 

Association,  Leamington. 

1867.  Inaugural    Address    as    President    of   the    British 

Medical  Association. 

1868.  Valedictory  Address    before    the    British    Medical 

Association,  Oxford. 
1874.  Address  as  President  of  the  Royal  Irish  Academy. 

Papers  by  *Dr.  Stokes. 

1832.  "On  the  Curability  of  Phthisis  Pulmonalis." 
1842.  A  review  of  Kugler's  Hand-book  of  Painting. 
1850.  "On  Mesmerism." 


247 


DEATH  OF   THE  POET  CLARENCE  MANGAN. 

LETTER  FROM  THOMAS  O'REILLY,  M.D., 
ST.  Louis,  Mo.,  TO  THE  AUTHOR. 

March  8/4  1898. 

My  DEAR  SIR  WILLIAM, — Nothing  could  give  me  more 
pleasure  than  the  receipt  of  your  letter  of  the  22nd  ulto., 
as  I  entertain  the  most  grateful  recollection  of  your 
father's  kindness  to  me,  a  poor  young  man  striving  to 
advance  in  life,  without  acquaintances,  and  without 
money.  I  feel  indebted  to  him  for  whatever  of  good 
fortune  has  befallen  me,  and  naturally,  I  would  be  an 
ingrate  if  I  were  not  the  friend  of  your  family,  therefore 
you  can  understand  my  delight  on  hearing  from  you. 

The  note  in  your  Memoir  in  reference  to  the  death  of 
Clarence  Mangan  in  the  Meath  Hospital  is  mainly  correct, 
except  that  it  was  I  (not  the  porter)  who  drew  your  father's 
attention  to  him.  He  was  shivering  and  almost  naked  when 
he  presented  himself  for  admission,  but  I  had  him  cleaned 
and  put  to  bed  in  the  public  ward  as  I  would  have  done 
with  the  ordinary  patients.  His  miserable  condition  did 
not  impress  me,  as  the  applicants  for  hospital  admission  at 
that  time  were  almost  all  destitute,  but  what  did  impress 
me  was  the  amazement  of  your  father  on  seeing  him. 
For  a  moment  he  seemed  bewildered,  as  if  he  did  not 
recognise  Mangan,  but  it  was  only  for  a  moment,  as  he 
told  the  class  the  patient  before  them  was  Clarence 
Mangan  the  poet.  Your  father,  with  his  characteristic 
humanity  and  sympathy,  turned  to  me  and  directed  that 
Mangan  should  be  placed  in  a  private  room,  clothed  with 
flannels,  and  supplied  with  every  necessary  comfort  at  his 
expense.  I  think  the  poor  fellow  lived  only  eight  or  nine 
days  after  his  admission,  and  I  am  almost  certain  your 
father  paid  his  funeral  expenses  through  Mr.  Parker  the 
hospital  steward.  The  account  of  the  artist  is  also 
correct,  except  an  omission.  The  head  was  shaved  and  a 
plaster  cast  of  the  head  and  neck  was  taken.  I  saw  it  a 
few  days  after  in  the  house  now  occupied  by  you.  Some 
five  or  six  years  ago  I  wrote  to  Sir  Charles  Gavin  Duffy, 
then  at  Nice,  correcting  a  statement  by  him,  to  the 
effect  that  Father  Meehan  paid  Mangan's  expenses.  He 
acknowledged  the  receipt  of  my  letter  and  promised  to 
correct  this  statement  in  the  next  edition  which  he  was 
about  to  publish,  but  as  I  never  saw  the  new  edition,  I 
cannot  say  that  he  fulfilled  his  promise.  Will  you  kindly 
put  me  down  for  a  copy  of  the  Memoir  on  your  father  ? 
And  believe  me  to  be  your  grateful  friend, 

THOMAS  O'REILLY. 


INDEX 


Acland,    Sir    Henry,   Bart., 

3i,36>7l>l3°>l4l>  *53, 
196,  231 

Alison,   Professor,     31,    32, 

174 
Alison,  Sir  Archibald,  8 1 

Andral,  40 

Anster,  Dr.,  78 

Apjohn,  Dr.  James,  30,  88 

Archaeology,  love    of,    73  ; 

Round  Towers,  73,  119, 

224;    foreign,     76,    77; 

Tour,  189,  190,  193 
Art,      85,     86  ;     landscape 

painting,    81  ;    ideal    of, 

85,  86 

Asiatic  cholera,  49 
Auscultation,  a  new  guide  in 

medical  treatment,  33,  35 

B 

Barlow,      Miss     Jane,     on 
Clarence  Mangan,»o/f  78 


Bennett,  Professor,  Edin- 
burgh, 174 

Booth,  Sir  Robert  Gore,  117, 
1 20 

Brinkley,  Bishop  of  Cloyne, 

49 

British  Medical  Association, 
addresses,  174,  196;  Presi- 
dency of,  1 86 

Bronchitis,  study  of,  a  key 
to  thoracic  pathology,  68 

Brougham,  Lord,  146 

Burrowes,  Peter,  26 

Burton,  Sir  Frederic,  78, 
80,  90 

Busche,  Dr.  Gerhard,  von 
dem,  note  71 

Bushe,  Charles  Kendal,  25 

Bqtt,  Isaac,  106 


Cambridge,     LL.D.,     (hon. 

fausaj,  209 
Carlyle,  Thomas,  90 


249 


INDEX 


Catholic  Emancipation,  100 
Change  of  type  in  disease, 

174-80 
Chest,  work  on  diseases  of, 

64-72 

Cholera,  Asiatic,  49 
Clare,  Lord,  20 
Clinical  teaching,  reform  in 

system  of,  42 
College  of  Physicians,  210, 

211,   238;    of  Surgeons, 

20,   31,   211,   238 

Corrigan,  122,  188  ;  reviews 

work  on  chest,  64-66 
Corvisart  and  Laennec,  64 
Crampton,    Sir    Philip,    51, 

123,  214 
Curran,  John  Philpott,  20, 

25,  222 
"  Cyclopaedia    of  Practical 

Medicine,"  contributions 

to,  51,  62 

D 

Davis,  Thomas,  78,  105 
Diploma  in  State  Medicine, 

see  State  Medicine 
Drama,  love  of,  8 1 
Dublin,    former   conditions 

of  society  in,  29 
Dunraven,  Earl  of,  153,  189, 

191,  225,  227 
Dysphagia,  62 


E 


Eberth,  181 


Edinburgh,  early  life  in,  31, 
LL.D.,  (hon.  causa )  145 

Enteritis,  62 

Epidemics  of  typhus  fever, 
44-46,  110-15 

Esterel,  valleys  of,  150,  151 

F 

Famine,  the  great,  no,  1 1 1, 

116,  117 
Faucit,  Helen  (Lady  Martin) 

81,  82 

Fenian  disturbance,  107 
Ferguson,   Sir    Samuel,    78, 

84>  237 
Fever,    180-84  5    epidemics 

of,  44-46  ;  110-15 
Foley,  the  sculptor,  210 
Foot,    Dr.   Arthur   Wynne, 

214,  215,  237 
Forbes,  Sir  J.,  51,  note  33 


Gairdner,  Sir  William,  181 
Gastritis,  62 
Gastro-enteritis,  62 
Ghent,  visit  to,  54 
Glasgow,    early   studies   in, 

3i 

Grattan,  20,  28 
Graves,  Dr.  Robert  James, 

40,42,  49,  62,  174,214; 

his  influence  on  William 

Stokes,     128  ;     life     and 

works  of,  128-30 


250 


INDEX 


H 

Hamilton,    Sir    William 

Rowan,  78 

Hamilton,  Mr.  Edward,  2 1 1 
Hatchell,  Dr.,  107 
Haughton,    Professor,    202, 

219 
Heart  and  Aorta,  work  on 

Diseases  of,  133-44 
"Home  Rule,"  106 
Hospital,  see  Meath  Hospital 
Hudson,    Dr.    Alfred,    68, 

125,  211 
Huxley,  Professor,  228 


Ingram,  Dr.,  206,  237 
Irish  Academy,   the  Royal, 

Presidency  of,  205,  236 
Irish    Church,    disestablish- 
ment of,  100 

J 

Journals,    contributions    to, 
50,  51,  62,  133,  182 


Laennec,  33,  51,64,65,66, 
69,  71 

Lecky,  Mr.,  note  25 

Letters,from  Wales,  3  8  Dub- 
lin, 43,44,  61,  102,  103, 
104,  114;  Ballinteer,  47  ; 
Brussels,  53  ;  Tyrol,  56  ; 
Co.  Mayo,  59,60  ;  St.Go- 


thard,  74  ;  Helen  Faucit, 
82  ;  on  art,  85  ;  from  the 
Rhine,  95,  96  ;  Co.  Sligo, 
1 1 8,  1 20  ;  Nice,  150  ; 
Dresden,  1 54  ;  London, 
152;  Letterfrack,  190; 
South  of  Ireland,  191  ; 
London,  203  ;  Earl  of 
Dunraven,  227  ;  Professor 
Huxley,  228  ;  Mr.  Le 
Fanu,  229  ;  Sir  James 
Clark,  Bart.,  230 
Liver,  inflammation  of,  62 
London  Medical  and  Surgical 
Journal,  contributions  to, 
5° 

M 

McCullagh,  Professor,  79 
MacNamara,  Dr.,  59,  60 
Madonna  di  San  Sisto,  154 
Magee,  Archbishop,  26 
Mahaffy,  Professor,   84,  87, 

88,  237 

Mangan,  Clarence,  78 
Marriage,  47 
Meath  Hospital,  30,  34,  38, 

39,40,42,45,50,64,158, 

173,  178,  180,  214,  215, 

219,  234,  238 
M.D.  {hon.  causa),  72 
Medicine,  Regius  Professor 

of,  20,  99 
Medicine,  School  of,  Dublin 

40 


251 


INDEX 


Medicine,  School  of,  Park 
Street,  50,  64 

Medicine,  theory  and  prac- 
tice of,  50 

Medicine,  preventive,  170- 
73  ;  State,  131  ;  diploma 
in  170,  186 

Medical  Charities  Bill,  112 

Medical  education,  10,  n, 
158,  165  ;  ethics,  165- 
69 

Mesmerism,  on,  127 

Moore,  Dr.  J.  W.,  218,  237 

Music,  love  of  national,  92 

N 

Nature,  enjoyment  and  love 
of,  28,  47 ;  powers  of 
description  of,  95  ;  sun- 
rise in  the  Tyrol,  96  ; 
valleys  of  the  Esterel,  1 50 ; 
sunset  from  Sybil  Head, 
191 

Nice,  visit  to,  150 


Obermeier,  181 
O'Connell,  Daniel,  101, 104 
O'Conor,  landscape  painter, 

79 
Opium,  observations  on  the 

exhibition  of,  51 
Oxford,        D.C.L.        (Aon. 

causa),  184 


Pathological  Society,Dublin, 
12,2-27,  175 

Peritonitis,  reform  in  treat- 
ment of,  62,  63 

Petrie,  Dr.  George,  79,  80, 
90,  189,  221-30 

Pfafers,  baths  of,  56 

Phthisis  pulmonalis,  cura- 
bility of,  5 1 

Physician  in  ordinary  to 
H.M.  the  Queen  in  Ire- 
land, 153 

Physicians,  College  of,  see 
College  of  Physicians 

Political  views,  99-107 

Plunket,  William  C.,  25 

Preventive  medicine,  170- 
73  ;  address  by  Dr. 
Rumsey,  189 

R 

Regius,  Professor  of  Medi- 
cine, 20,  99 

Royal  Society,  the,  Fellow- 
ship of,  153 

Rumsey,  Dr.,  188,  189 


Sanitary  Science,  on,  173 
Scott,    Sir  Walter,   27,  79, 

237  ;  grave  of,  148 
Shakespeare  Society,  84 
Sibson,  Dr.,  68,  188 


252 


INDEX 


Simpson,  Dr.  (Sir  James), 
145,  146,  147,  1 88 

Smith,  Professor  R.  W., 
122  ;  oration  before 
British  Medical  Associa- 
tion, 1 88 

Smyly,  Mr.  Josiah,  173 

Spain,  tour  in,  94 

St.  Fintan's,  Howth,  238 

State  Medicine,  131  ;  dip- 
loma in,  170,  1 86 

Stephens,  James,  107 

Stethoscope,  first  treatise  in 
English  on  the  use  of,  33  ; 
controversies  on,  34 ; 
application  of,  34 

Stokes,  Gabriel,  1680,  15 

Stokes,  Whitley,  1763  ; 
father  of  William  Stokes, 
19-26 

Stokes,  William,  b.  \  804  ; 
ancestors,  15-19;  birth 
and  parentage,  26  ;  boy- 
hood, 27,  28  ;  student 
life,  29-3 1  ;  two  years  in 
Glasgow,  31  ;  friendship 
with  Professor  Alison  in 
Edinburgh,  31,  32  ; 
treatise  on  use  of  the 
stethoscope,  1825,  33  ; 
Medical  degree,  Edin- 
burgh, 37  ;  returns  to 
Dublin,  37  ;  physician  to 
the  Meath  Hospital,  1826, 
38  ;  visit  to  North  Wales, 


253 


38  ;  friendship  with  Dr. 
Robert  J.  Graves,  39, 
40  ;  success  of  early 
researches,  40,  41  ;  re- 
forms clinical  teaching, 
42  ;  first  lecture,  43  ; 
epidemic  of  typhus,  44, 
46 ;  goes  to  Ballinteer, 
1827,47  ;  marriage,  1828, 
47  ;  published  lectures  on 
the  application  of  the 
stethoscope,  34  ;  first  case 
of  Asiatic  cholera,  49  ; 
clinical  lectures,  Meath 
Hospital,  1832-33,  50; 
published  clinical  ob- 
servations on  the  exhibi- 
tion of  opium  and  a  paper 
on  the  curability  of 
Phthisis  Pulmonalis,  51  ; 
paper  on  Thoracic  Patho- 
logy, 51  ;  lectures  on 
Theory  and  Practice  of 
Medicine,  1833,  50 ; 
edits  Dublin  Journal  of 
Medical  Science,  1834, 
51  ;  begins  work  on 
"Diseases  of  the  Chest," 
1835,  51  ;  Continental 
tour,  1836,  52-58  ;  visit 
to  Connemara,  59  ;  death 
of  Dr.  MacNamara,  60  ; 
publishes  "  Diseases  of 
the  Chest,"  1837,  64-69  ; 
results  of  researches  on 
R 


INDEX 


Diseases  of  the  Chest, 
69,  70  ;  M.D.  (hon. 
causa)  Dublin,  72  ; 
efforts  to  exalt  medicine 
to  a  science,  198  ;  love 
of  Art  and  Poetry,  27,  79  ; 
founding  of  Pathological 
Society,  Dublin,  1838, 
122-27  J  objects  of 
society,  123  ;  Continen- 
tal tour,  1839,  74-77  ; 
friendships,  78,  79,  88  ; 
description  of  scenery  on 
the  Rhine,  1840,  95  ; 
sunrise  in  the  Tyrol,  96  ; 
Great  Famine,  1847-48, 
no;  epidemic  of  typhus, 
ill  ;  Medical  Charities 
Bill,  1843,  112  ;  death  of 
his  father,  1845,  99  ; 
Regius  Professor  of 
Medicine,  Dublin  Uni- 
versity, 1845,  99  ;  friend- 
ship with  Helen  Faucit, 
8 1  ;  impressions  pro- 
duced by  her  acting,  82  ; 
some  remarks  on  Art,  85, 
86 ;  hospitality,  87  ; 
Saturday  evenings  at 
Merrion  Square,  87  ;  in- 
fluence on  his  young 
friends,  88  ;  entertains 
Thomas  Carlyle,  1 849, 
90  ;  paper  on  Mesmerism, 
1 27  ;  visit  to  Sir  R.  Gore 


Booth,  1850,  117-21  ; 
his  taste  for  music,  92, 
93  ;  his  powers  of  ac- 
curate observation  in 
Nature  and  Art,  93  ;  on 
Disestablishment  of  Irish 
Church,  100  ;  repeal  of 
the  Union,  102  ;  Catholic 
Emancipation,  100  ; 
"  Young  Ireland  "  party, 

105  ;      "Home      Rule,'' 

1 06  ;   death    of    Graves, 
1853,   128  ;  discourse  on 
life  and  works  of  Graves, 
1854, 128  ;  opens  Medical 
Session,     T.C.D.,      with 
address,       131-33  ;     ad- 
vocates identical  training 
for  physician  and  surgeon, 
131  ;  publishes  "Diseases 
of  the  Heart  and  Aorta," 
133-44   ;      Crown       re- 
presentative on    General 
Medical    Council,   1858, 
169  ;  addresses  on  Medical 
Education,  1861-64,  l$& 
-65  ;    LL.D.  (hon.  causa) 
Edinburgh  ;  145,  146  ;  a 
guest  of  Professor  Simp- 
son, 145  ;  a  day's  excur- 
sion, 147  ;  visit  to  Nice, 
1862,  150  ;  visit  to  Paris, 
152;  Physician  in    ordi- 
nary to  H.M.  the  Queen 
in  Ireland,   153  ;  F.R.S., 


254 


INDEX 


1863,  153  ;  tour  on  the 
Continent,  154-57; 
visit  to  Dresden,  1 54 ; 
«dits  "  Studies  in 
Physiology  and  Medi- 
cine," 130  ;  address  on 
life  and  works  of  Mr. 
Josiah  Smyly,  1864,  173  ; 
D.C.L.  (hon.  causa) 
Oxon,  1868,  184  ;  ad- 
dress in  Medicine  be- 
fore British  Medical 
Association,  1865,  174  ; 
Presidency  of  British 
Medical  Association, 
1867,  1 86  ;  inaugural  ad- 
dress, 1 86  ;  archaeological 
tour,  189  ;  Valedictory 
Address,  British  Medical 
Association,  Oxon,  1868, 
196 ;  Shakespeare  Society, 
£4 ;  publishes  Life  and 
Labours  in  Art  and  Arch- 
aeology of  George  Petrie, 
221-226  ;  Medical 
Ethics,  165-69  ;  views 
on  State  Medicine,  170, 
171  ;  diploma  in  State 
Medicine,  1871,  170; 
lectures  on  Sanitary 
Science,  173  ;  publishes 
lectures  on  Fever,  1874, 
180—84;  presidency 
R.I.A.,  205  ;  LL.D.  (hon. 
causa)  Cambridge,  209  ; 


speech  of  Public  Orator, 
209  ;  unveiling  of  his 
statue  in  the  College  of 
Physicians,  1876,  210  ; 
presented  with  the 
Prussian  order,  "  Pour  le 
Merite,"  220 ;  resigns 
Presidency  of  R.I.A.,  and 
seat  on  General  Medical 
Council,  236  ;  last  illness 
and  death,  1878,  237, 
238  ;  obituary  notice, 
218  ;  epitome  of  his 
work  and  researches,  2 1 1 ; 
his  estimate  as  a  teacher, 
218  ;  as  a  pathologist, 
125  ;  as  a  President,  206  ; 
as  a  conversationalist,  90, 
91  ;  pictorial  power  in 
delineation  of  disease,  68  ; 
example  of  his  word- 
painting,  191 

"  Studies  in  Physiology  and 
Medicine,"  by  Dr.  Graves, 
130 

Surgeons,  College  of,  see 
College  of  Surgeons 

Swift  and  Stella,  marriage 
of,  note  19 


Thompson,  Professor,  31 
Thoracic  disease,  Laennec's 
work    on,    64 ;     supple- 
mented by  Stokes,  65 


255 


INDEX 


Tone,  Theobald  Wolfe,  on 
Whitley  Stokes,  21 

Trench,  Archbishop,  Poems 
by,  211,  239 

U 

United  Irishmen,  Society 
of,  22 


Vandyke's  Crucifixion,  55 
Van  Eyck,  paintings  of,  55 
Vere,  Aubrey  de,  quotation 
from,  1 02 


W 

Walker,  John,  tutor  to 
William  Stokes,  30 

Wordsworth,  William,poetry 
of,  8 1 


Young  Ireland  party, Thomas 
Davis,  105 


Zoological  Gardens,  Dublin, 
24 


UNWIJJ  BROTHERS,  THE  GRESHAM  PRESS,  WOKING  AND  LONDON. 


JAN  1  3  2003 


PRINTED  IN   U.S.*.  CAT.      NO.      24      161 


A     000  899  207     5 


